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GARDEN -MAKING 



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GARDEN -MAKING 



Suggestions for the 
Utilizing of Home Grounds 



'J' BY;/ 

L. H. BAILEY 



Aided by L. R. Taft, Professor of Horticulture in the Agricultural 

College of Michigan; F. A. Waugh, Professor of Horticulture 

in the University of Vermont; and Ernest Walker, 

Assistant in Horticulture and Entomology in 

Clemson College, South Carolina 



!Nttog^ 




THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd 
1898 



All rights reserved 



TWO 66i»^E» fte«fclVEO 



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2444 



Copyright, 1898, 
By L. H. bailey 




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J. Horace McFarland Company 
Harribburg, Pa. 



OUTLINE 

SECTION I , 

General Advice 1-119 

The mental ideal, 1-7. Preparation of the land, 7-37 
(the saving of moisture, 7; preparing the under- 
soil, 12; preparation of the surface, 18; tools for 
weeding and subsequent tillage, 24). Sowing and 
planting, 37-58 (sowing the seed, 37; transplanting 
young seedlings, 38; transplanting established 
plants and seeds, 44). Winter protection of plants, 
58-67. The forcing of plants, 67-88 (coldframes, 
71; hotbeds, 75). Insects and diseases, 88-103. 
Protecting plants from animals, 10.3-108. Keeping 
records of the plantation, 109-114. Enriching the 
land 114-119. 

SECTION II 
The Plan of the Place 120-210 

The picture in the landscape, 121-158 (containing a 
free sketch of what a picture is and how it may be 
obtained, contrasts of massed and scattered plant- 
ings, discussions of flower-beds, borders, types of 
bushes for lawn effects, weeping and odd trees, the 
use of poplars and willows, and the fundamentals 
of landscape gardening). Various specific ex- 
amples, 158-176 (containing plans of yards and 
lawns). How to make the improvements, 177-210 
(discusses grading, terraces, banks, sunken fences, 
filling about trees, walks and drives, curbs, sub- 
urban streets, edges of walks and drives, materials 
for walks and drives, etc.; making the plan, 195; 
making a lawn, 199). 

(v) 



VI OUTLINE 

SECTION III 

PAGES 

Planting the Ornamental Grounds 211-301 

Choosing the plants, 211-220. List of ornamental 
plants which are hardy in Central Michigan, 220- 
240. Plants for floral effects (by Ernest "Walker), 
241-301, containing: (1) Remarks on flower-beds, 
241; (2) Carpet-bedding, 243; (3) Edgings and 
mass-beds, 251; (4) Annuals, 255; (5) Bulbous and 
tuberous plants, 267; (6) Hardy herbaceous per- 
ennials, 278; (7) Hardy climbing plants, 291; 
(8) The rose, 294. 

SECTION IV 
The Fruit Plantation 302-347 

The arrangement of the fruit-garden, 302-305. Ad- 
vice upon the growing of fruit (by Professor 
Taft), 305-347, containing: (1) Northern orchard 
fruits (the apple, 308, the pear, 313, the plum, 317, 
the peach, 319, apricots and nectarines, 323, the 
cherry, 323); (2) Sub-tropical fruits (the orange, 
325, the olive, 329, the pineapple, 330, banana, 
330, flg, 331); (3) The grape, 332; (4) Small-fruits 
(red and black raspberries 336; blackberries and 
dewberries, 339; currants, 340; gooseberries, 342; 
strawberries, 343). 

SECTION V 

The Vegetable Garden 348-385 

Plans for the kitchen-garden, 348-352, The vegetable 
garden (by Professor Waugh), 353-385, containing: 
(1) Root crops and tubers (beet, carrot, parsnip, 
potato, etc.), 353; (2) Alliaceous group (onions, 
etc.), 360; (3) Leguminous group (cabbage, kale, 
cauliflower, etc.), 364; (4) Solanaceous group (to- 
matoes, eggplant, etc.), 369; (5) Cucurbitaceous 



OUTLINE Vll 



group (cucumber, melon, squash, etc.)? 373; (6) 
Salad plants and pot-herbs (lettuce, cress, endive, 
dandelion, spinach, mustai'd, chard, etc.), 376; (7) 
Miscellaneous vegetables (celery, asparagus, sweet 
corn, artichoke), 380; (8) Sweet herbs, 385. 



* SECTION VI 
Seasonal Reminders 386-411 

General remarks, 386-389. Calendars for the North 
(by T. Greiner), 389-401. Calendars for the South 
(by H. W. Smith and F. H. Burnette), 402-411 

INDEX 413-417 



I 



GARDEN -MAKING 



Section I 



GENERAL ADVICE 

Every family can have a garden. If there is 
not a foot of land, there are porches or windows. 
Wherever there is sunlight, plants may be made 
to grow ; and one plant in a tin can may be a 
more helpful and inspiring garden to some mind 
than a whole acre of lawn and flowers may be to 
another. The satisfaction of a garden does not 
depend upon the area, nor, happily, upon the 
cost or rarity of the plants. It depends upon the 
temper of the person. One must first seek to 
love plants and nature, and then to cultivate that 
happy peace of mind which is satisfied with little. 
He will be happier if he has no rigid and arbi- 
trary ideals, for gardens are coquettish, particu- 
larly with the novice. If plants grow and thrive, 
he should be happy; and if the plants which 
thrive chance not to be the ones which he planted, 
they are plants nevertheless, and nature is satis- 
fied with them. We are apt to covet the things 



2 GENERAL ADVICE 

which we cannot have ; but we are happier when 
we love the things which grow because they must. 
A patch of lusty pigweeds, growing and crowding 
in luxuriant abandon, may be a better and more 
worthy object of affection than a bed of coleuses 
in which every spark of life and spirit and indi- 
viduality has been sheared out and suppressed. 
The man who worries morning and night about 
the dandelions in the lawn will find great relief 
in loving the dandelions. Each blossom is worth 
more than a gold coin, as it shimmers in the 
exuberant sunlight of the growing spring, and 
attracts the bees to its bosom. Little children 
love the dandelions : why may not we ? Love 
the things nearest at hand ; and love intensel3^ 
If I were to write a motto over the gate of a gar- 
den, I should choose the remark which Socrates 
made as he saw the luxuries in the market, 
"How much there is in the world that I do not 
want ! " 

I verily believe that this paragraph which I 
have just written is worth more than all the 
advice with which I intend to cram the succeeding 
pages, notwithstanding the fact that I have most 
assiduously extracted this advice from various 
worthy but, happily, long-forgotten authors. 
Happiness is a quality of a person, not of a 
plant or a garden ; and the anticipation of joy 
in the writing of a book may be the reason why 
so many books on garden-making have been writ- 



GARDENING BOOKS 3 

ten. Of course, all these books have been good 
and useful. It would be ungrateful, at the least, 
for the present writer to say otherwise ; but 
books grow old, and the advice becomes too fa- 
miliar. The sentences need to be transposed and 
the order of the chapters varied, now and then, 
or interest lags. Or, to speak plainly, a new 
book of advice upon handicraft is needed in every 
decade. There has been a long and worthy pro- 
cession of these handbooks, — Gardiner & Hepburn, 
M'Mahon, Cobbett — original, pungent, ubiquitous 
Cobbett ! — Fessenden, Bridgeman, Sayers, Buist, 
and a dozen more, each one a little richer because 
the others had been written. But even the fact 
that these books pass into oblivion does not 
deter another hand from making still another 
venture ! 

I expect, then, that every person who reads 
this book will make a garden, or will try to 
make one ; but if only tares grow where roses 
are desired, I must remind the reader that at the 
outset I advised pigweeds. The book, therefore, 
will suit everybody, — the experienced gardener, 
because it will be an echo of what he already 
knows ; and the novice, because it will apply as 
well to a garden of burdocks as of onions. 

A garden is the personal part of an estate, that 
area which is most intimately associated with the 
private life of the home. Originally, the garden 
was the area inside the enclosure or lines of forti- 



4 GENERAL ADVICE 

fication, in distinction to the unprotected area or 
fields which lay beyond ; and this latter area was 
the particular domain of agriculture. This book 
understands the garden to be that part of the 
premises which is devoted to ornament, and to 
the growing of vegetables and fruits either for 
the home consumption or for market. The gar- 
den is, therefore, an ill- defined demesne ; but the 
reader must not make the mistake of defining it 
by dimensions, for one may have a garden in a 
flower-pot or on a thousand acres. In other 
words, this book believes that every bit of land 
which is not used for buildings, walks, drives 
and fences, should be planted. What we shall 
plant, — whether sward, lilacs, thistles, cabbages, 
pears, chrysanthemums or tomatoes, — we shall 
talk about as we proceed. 

The only way to keep land perfectly unpro- 
ductive is to keep it moving. The moment the 
owner lets it alone, the planting has begun. In 
my own garden, this first planting is of pigweeds. 
These are usually followed, the next year, by 
ragweeds, then by docks and thistles, with here 
and there a start of clover and grass ; and it all 
ends in June-grass and dandelions. Nature does 
not allow the land to remain bare and idle. 
Even the bank where plaster and lath were 
dumped two years ago is now luxuriant with 
burdocks and sweet clover ; and yet people who 
pass that dump every day say that they can 



THE USEFUL BURDOCK 5 

grow notliiug in their own yard because the 
soil is so poor ! Yet, I venture that those same 
persons furnish most of the pigweed seed which 
I use on my garden. 

The lesson is that there is no soil, — where a 
house would be built, — so poor that something 
cannot be grown. If burdocks will grow, some- 
thing else will grow ; or if nothing else will 




1. The ornamental burdock. 



■^. 



grow, then' I prefer burdocks to sand and rub- 
bish. The burdock is one of the most striking 
and decorative of plants, and a good piece of it 
against a building or on a rough bank is just as 
useful as some plant which costs money and is 
difficult to grow. I had a good clump of it under 
my study window, and it was a great comfort, but 
the man would persist in cutting it down when 



6 GENERAL ADVICE 

he mowed the lawn. When I remonstrated, he 
declared that it was nothing but burdock ; but I 
insisted that, so far from being burdock, it was 
really Lappa major, since which time the plant 
has enjoyed his utmost respect. And I find that 
most of my friends reserve their appreciation of 
a plant until they have learned its name and 
connections. 

The dump-heap which I mentioned has a surface 
area of nearly one-hundred and fifty square feet, 
and I find that it has grown over two hundred 
good plants of one kind or another this year. 
This is more than my gardener accomplished on 
an equal area, with manure and water and a man 
to help. The difference was that the plants on 
the dump wanted to grow, and the imported 
plants in the garden did not want to grow. It 
was the difference between a willing horse and a 
balkj^ one. If a person wants to show his skill, 
he may choose the balky plant: but if he wants 
fun and comfort in gardening, he had better 
choose the willing one. 

I have never been able to find out wh'en the bur- 
docks and mustard were planted on the dump; 
and I am sure that they were never hoed or wa- 
tered. Nature practices a wonderfully rigid econ- 
omy. For nearly half the summer she even 
refused rain to the plants, but still they thrived; 
yet I staid home from a vacation one summer 
that I might keep my plants from dying. I have 



CONSERVING MOISTURE 7 

since learned that if the plants in my borders can- 
not take care of themselves for a few weeks, they 
are little comfort to me. 

PBEPABATION OF TEE LAND 

Having now discussed the most essential ele- 
ments of gardening, we may give our attention 
to such minor features as the preparation of the 
land, fertilizing, and the details of planting. 
Almost any land contains enough food for the 
growing of good crops, but the food elements may 
be chemically unavailable, or there may be insuffi- 
cient water to dissolve them. It is too long a 
story to explain the philosophy of tillage at this 
place, and the reader who desires to make excur- 
sions into this delightful subject should consult 
King on "The Soil" and Roberts on "The Fer- 
tility of the Land." The reader must accept the 
bare statement that tilling the land makes it pro- 
ductive. 

The saving of moisture. — Proper preparation 
and tillage also put the land in such condition that 
it holds the water of rainfall. Land which is very 
hard and compact may shed the rainfall, particu- 
larly if it is sloping and if the surface is bare of 
vegetation. If the hard-pan is near the surface, 
the land cannot hold much water, and any ordi- 
nary rainfall may fill it so full that it overflows, 
or puddles stand on the surface. Upon land which 
is in good tilth, the water of rainfall sinks away, 



8 GENERAL ADVICE 

and is not visible as free water. As soon as the 
moisture begins to depart from the superincumbent 
atmosphere, evaporation begins from the surface 
of the land. Any body which is interposed be- 
tween the land and the air checks this evaporation : 
this is why there is moisture underneath a board. 
It is impracticable, however, to floor over the gar- 
den with boards, but any covering will have the 
same effect, but in different degree. A covering 
of sawdust or leaves or dry ashes_will prevent the 
loss of moisture. So will a covering of dry earth. 
Now, inasmuch as the land is already covered with 
earth, it" only remains to loosen up a layer or 
stratum on top in order to secure our mulch. 

All this is only a roundabout way of saying that 
frequent shallow surface tillage conserves moisture. 
The comparatively dry and loose mulch breaks up 
the capillary connection between the surface soil 
and the under soil, and while the mulch itself 
may be useless as a foraging ground for roots, 
it more than pays its keep by its preventing of 
the loss of moisture ; and its own soluble plant- 
foods are washed down into the low^er soil by the 
rains. As often as the surface becomes compact, 
the mulch should be renewed or repaired by the 
use of the rake or cultivator or harrow. People 
are deceived by supposing that so long as the 
surface remains moist, the land is in the best 
possible condition; but a moist surface only 
means that water is rapidly passing off into the 



SOIL -MULCH 



atmosphere. A dry surface means that little 
evaporation is taking place. A finely raked bed 
is dry on top ; but the footprints of the eat re- 
main moist for days, for the animal packed the 




2. Ideal preparation of land. 

soil wherever it stepped and a capillary con- 
nection was established with the water reservoir 
beneath. Gardeners advise firming the earth 
over newly planted seeds to hasten germination. 
This is essential in dry times; but what we gain 



10 GENERAL ADVICE 

in hastening germination we lose in the more 
rapid evaporation of moisture. The lesson is that 
we should loosen the soil as soon as the seeds have 
germinated, to reduce the evaporation to the mini- 
mum. Large seeds, as beans and peas, can be 
planted deep and have the earth firmed about 
them, and then the rake may be applied to the 
surface to stop the rise of moisture before it 
reaches the air. 

The illustrations, adapted from Roberts' "Fer- 
tility," show good and poor preparation of the 
land. Fig. 2 is a section of land twelve inches 
deep. The under soil has been finely broken and 
pulverized and then compacted. It is mellow but 
firm, and is an excellent water reservoir. Three 
inches of the surface is a mulch of loose and dry 
earth. Fig. 3 shows an earth -mulch, but it is too 
shallow; and the under soil is so open and cloddy 
that the water runs through it. 

This subject of the conservation of moisture is 
so important that I wish to present it in various 
ways. The following extract, although written 
for children ("A Children's Garden"), may still 
further explain the matter: "I wonder if you 
have a watering-pot? If j^-ou have, put it where 
you cannot find it, for we are going to water this 
garden with a rake! We want you to learn, in 
this little garden, the first great lesson in farming, 
— how to save the water in the soil. If you learn 
that much this summer, you will know more than 



THE SOIL -MULCH 



11 



many old farmers do. You know that the soil is 
moist in the spring when you plant the seeds. 
Where does this moisture go? It dries up, — goes 
off into the air. If we could cover the soil 




.'aT'^s 



3, Slovenly preparation of land. 



with something, we should prevent the moisture 
from drying up. Let us cover it with a layer of 
loose, dry earth! We will make this covering by 
raking the bed every few days, — once every week 
anyway, and oftener than that if the top of the 



12 GENERAL ADVICE 

soil becomes hard and crusty, as it does after a 
rain. Instead of pouring water on the bed, there- 
fore, we will keep the moisture in the bed. If, 
however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you 
that the plants do not thrive, then water the bed. 
Do not sprinJde it, but tvater it. Wet it clear 
through at evening. Then in the morning, when 
the surface begins to dry, begin the raking 
again to keep the water from getting away. 
Sprinkling the plants every day or two is one of 
the surest ways of spoiling them." 

Preparing the under -soil.— The first step in 
the preparation of land, after it has been thor- 
oughly cleared and subdued of forest or previous 
vegetation, is to attend to the drainage. All land 
which is springy, low and "sour," or which holds 
the water in puddles for a day or two following 
heavy rains, should be thoroughly underdrained. 
Draining also improves the physical condition of 
the soil, even when the land does not need ditch- 
ing for the removal of superfluous water. In hard 
lands, it lowers the water-table, or tends to loosen 
and aerate the soil to a greater depth, and thereby 
enables it to hold more water without injury to 
plants. Drainage is particularly useful in dry but 
hard garden lands, because these lands are often 
in sod or permanently planted, and the soil can- 
not be broken up by deep tillage. Tile drain- 
age is permanent subsoiling. 

In most regions, well baked cylindrical tiles 



DITCHING 



13 



make the best and most permanent drains. The 
ditches should not be less than two and one-half 
feet deep, and three or three and one -half feet is 
a better depth. In most garden areas, drains may 
be laid with profit as 
often as every thirty feet. 
Give all drains a good and 
continuous fall. For 

single drains, and for 
laterals not over four 
hundred or five hundred 
feet long, a two and one- 
half inch tile is sufficient, 
unless much water must 
be carried from swales or 
springs. In stony coun- 
tries, flat stones may be 
used in place of tiles, and 
persons who are skillful 
in laying them make 
drains as good and per- 
manent as those con- 
structed of tiles. The 
tiles or stones are , covered with sods, straw or 
paper, and the earth is then filled in. This 
temporary cover keeps the loose dirt out of the 
tiles, and by the time it is rotted the earth 
has settled into place. 

In small places, ditching must ordinarily be 
done wholly with hand tools. A common spade 




4. ■ Ditching tools. 



14 



GENERAL ADVICE 



and pick are the implements usually employed, 
although a spade with a long handle and narrow 
blade, as shown in Fig. 4, is very useful for exca- 
vating the bottom of the ditch. In most cases, 
much time and muscle are wasted in the use of 
the pick. If the digging is properly done, a spade 
can be used to cut the soil, even in fairly hard 
clay land, with no great difficulty. The essential 




How to handle the spade. 



point in the easy use of the spade is to so manage 
that one edge of the spade always cuts a free or 
exposed surface. The illustration (Fig. 5) will 
explain the method. When the operator endeavors 
to cut the soil in the method shown at a, he is 
obliged to break both surfaces at every thrust of 
the tool; but when he cuts the slice diagonally, 
first throwing his spade to the right and then to 
the left, as shown at b, he cuts only one surface, 
and is able to make progress without the expendi- 



DRAINING 



15 



ture of useless effort. These remarks will apply, 
with almost equal force, to any spading of the 
land. 

In large areas, horses may be used to facilitate 
the work of ditching. There are ditching plows, 
which, however, need not be discussed here ; but 
three or four furrows can be thrown out in either 
direction with an ordinarily strong plow, and a 
sub -soil plow can be run behind to break up the 
hard-pan, and this may reduce the labor of dig- 
ging as much as one -half. When the excavating 




6. Trenching with a spade. 



is completed, the bottom of the ditch is evened up 
by means of a line or level, and the bed for the 
tiles is prepared by the use of a goose-neck scoop, 
shown in Fig. 4. It is very important that the 
outlets of drains be kept free of weeds and 
litter. If the outlet is built up with mason work, 
so as to hold the end of the tile intact, very much 
will be added to the permanency of the drain. 

Although under -draining is the most important 
means of increasing the d^pth of the soil, it is 
not always practicable to lay drains through gar- 
den lands, either because the lands are already 



16 GENERAL ADVICE 

planted or built upon, or because suitable outlets 
can not be found. In such cases, recourse is had 
to verj^ deep preparation of the land, either every 
j^ear or every two or three years. In small gar- 
den areas, this deep preparation will ordinarily 
be done by trenching with a spade. This opera- 
tion of trenching consists in breaking up the earth 
two spades deep. Fig. 6 explains the operation. 
The section at the left shows a single spading, the 




7. Home-made subsoil plow. 

earth being thrown over to the right, leaving the 
subsoil exposed the whole width of the bed. The 
section at the 'right shows a similar operation, so 
far as the surface spading is concerned, but the 
subsoil has also been cut as fast as it has been 
exposed. This under soil is not thrown out upon 
the surface, and usually it is not inverted; but a 
spadeful is lifted and then allowed to drop so that 
it is thoroughly broken and pulverized in the 
manipulation. In all lands which have a hard 



SUBSOIL PLOWING 



17 



and high subsoil, it is ahnost essential to practice 
trenching if the best results are to be obtained; 
and this is especially true when deep-rooted plants, 
like beets, parsnips and other root- crops, are desired. 
In places which can be entered with the plow, 
deep and heavy plowing to the depth of seven to 
ten inches may be desirable upon hard lands, 
especially if such lands cannot be plowed very 




8. Types of subsoil plows. 



often; and the depth of the pulverization is often 
extended by means of the subsoil plow. This 
subsoil plow does not turn a furrow, but a 
second team draws the implement behind the 
ordinary plow, and the bottom of the furrow is 
loosened and broken. Fig. 7 shows a home-made 
subsoil plow, and Fig. 8 two types of commer- 
cial tools. It must be remembered that it is the 
hardest lands which need subsoiling, and that, 
therefore, the subsoil plow should be exceedingly 



18 



GENERAL ADVICE 



strong. Fig. 9 shows various types of model 
surface plows. The one shown at the upper left- 
hand is considered by Roberts, in his "Fertility 
of the Land," to be the ideal general - purpose 
plow, as respects shape and method of con- 
struction . 

Preparation of the surface. — Every pains 
should be taken to prevent the surface of the land 
from becoming crusty or baked, for we have al- 




9. Types of model plows. 

ready found that the hard surface establishes a 
capillary connection with the moist soil beneath, 
and is a means of passing off the water into the 
atmosphere. Loose and mellow soil also has 
more free plant -food, and provides the most con- 
genial conditions for the growth of plants. If the 
soil is a stiff clay, it is often advisable to plow 
it or dig it in the fall, allowing it to lie rough 
and loose all winter, so that the weathering 
may pulverize and slake it. If the clay is very 



SPADING AND FORKING 



19 



tenacious, it may be necessary to throw l^af- 
mold or litter over the surface before the spading 
is done, to prevent the soil from running together 
or cementing before spring. With mellow and 
loamy lands, however, it is ordinarily best to leave 
the preparation of the surface until spring. 

In the preparation of the surface, the ordinary 
hand tools, or spades and shovels, may be used. 
If, however, the soil is mellow, a fork is a better 
tool than a spade, from the fact 
that it does not slice the soil, 
but tends to break it up into 
smaller and more irregular masses. 
The ordinary spading -fork, with 
strong, flat tines, is a most ser- 
viceable tool ; but a good spad- 
ing -fork may be made from an 
old manure fork by cutting down 
the tines, as shown in Fig. 10. 
It is essential that the soil should 
not be sticky when it is prepared, 
as it is likely to become hard 
and baked and the physical con- 
dition greatly injured. However, 
land which is too wet for the 
reception of seeds may still be 
thrown up loose with a spade or 
fork and allowed to dry, and after two or three 
days the surface preparation may be completed 
with the use of the hoe and the rake. In ordi- 




' i / / 

10. 
Improvised fork. 



20 



GENERAL ADVICE 



nary soils, the hoe is the tool to follow the 
spading -fork or the spade, but for the final prep- 
aration of the surface a steel garden-rake is the 
ideal tool. 

In areas which are large enough to admit horse 
tools, the land can be fitted more economically by 
means of the various types of harrows and cul- 
tivators which are to be had of any dealer in 
agricultural implements. The type of machine 
which is to be used must be determined wholly 




11. Disc and Acme harrows, for the first working of hard 
or cloddy land, 

by the character of the land and the purposes for 
which it is to be fitted. Land which is hard and 
cloddy may be reduced by the use of the disc or 
Acme harrows, shown in Fig. 11, but lands which 
are friable and mellow may not need such heavy 



HARROWS 21 

and vigorous tools. Upon these mellower lands, 
the spriiig-tooth harrow, types of which are shown 
in Fig. 12, may follow the plow. Upon very hard 
lands, these spring -tooth harrows may follow the 




12. Spring-tooth harrows, for working hard or medium- 
hard lands, and to follow the disc or Acme. 

disc and Acme types. The final preparation of 
the land is accomplished by light implements of 
the pattern shown in Fig. 13. These spike -tooth 
smoothing -harrows do for the field what the hand- 
rake does for the garden-bed. If it is desired to 
put a very fine finish upon the surface of the 
ground by means of horse tools, implements like 



22 GENERAL ADVICE 

the Breed or Wiard weeder may be used. These 
are constructed upon the principle of a spring- 
tooth horse hay -rake, and are most excellent, not 
only for fitting" loose land for ordinary seeding, 
but also for subsequent tillage. 

In areas which cannot be entered with a team, 
various one-horse implements may be used to do 
the work which is done by heavier tools in the 
field. The spring -tooth cultivator, shown at the 
right in Fig. 14, may do the kind of work which 




13. Spike-tooth harrow, for the final fitting of the land. 

the spring -tooth harrows are expected to do upon 
larger areas; and various adjustable spike-tooth 
cultivators, two of which are shown in Fig. 14, 
are useful for putting a finish upon the land. 
These tools are also available for the tilling of 
the land when the crops are growing. The 
spring -tooth cultivator is a most useful tool for 
cviltivating raspberries and strawberries, and other 
large -area crops. 

For still smaller areas, in which horses cannot 
be used and which are still too large for tilling 
wholly by means of hoes and rakes, various types 
of wheel -hoes may be used. These implements 



WHEEL -HO'ES 23 

are now made in great variety of patterns, to suit 
any taste and almost any kind of tillage. For 
the best results, it is essential that the wheel 
should be large and with a broad tire, that 
it may override obstacles. Fig. 15 shows an 
excellent type of wheel -hoe with five blades, 




14. Spike-tooth and spring-tooth cultivators, to be used 
where harrows cannot be employed. 

and Fig. 16 shows one with a single blade and 
which may be used in very narrow rows. Two- 
wheeled hoes are often used, particularly when it 
is necessary to have the implement very steady, 
and they may be used to straddle the rows of 
low plants. Many of these wheel -hoes are pro- 
vided wifclf various types of blades, so that the 
implement may be adjusted to many kinds of 



24 



GENERAL ADVICE 



work. Nearly all the weeding of beds of onions 
and like plants can be done by means of these 
wheel -hoes, if the gronnd is well prepared in the 
beginning; but it must be remembered that they 
are of comparatively small use in very hard and 
cloddy and stony lands. 

Tools for weeding and subsequent til- 
lage. — Any of the cultivators and wheel -hoes are 
as useful for the <5^ subsequent tilling of the 



crop as for the 
land, but there 




initial preparation of the 
are other tools also, which 




15. Good type of 
wheel-hoe. 



16. A single-blade 
wheel-hoe. 



17. Double wheel- 
hoe, useful in 
straddling the row. 



greatly facilitate the keeping of the plantation 
in order. The common rectangular-bladed hoe 
is so thoroughly established in the popular mind 
that it is very difficult to introduce new patterns, 
even though they may be intrinsicallj^ superior. 
As a general-purpose tool, it is no doubt true 
that a common hoe is better than any of its 



THE KI DES 25 

modifications, but there are various patterns of 
hoe -blades which are greatly superior for special 
uses. The great width of the common blade does 
not allow of its being used in very narrow rows 
or very close to delicate plants, and it does not 
allow of the deep stirring of the soil in narrow 
spaces. It is also difficult to enter hard ground 
with such a broad face. Various pointed blades 
have been introduced from time to time, and al- 




ls. Double-pointed hoes. 

most any of them have distinct merit. Some per- 
sons prefer two points to the hoe, as shown in 
Marvin's blades, in Fig. 18. Persons who fol- 
lowed the entertaining writings of Mr. A. B. Tar- 
ryer (a pseudonym for a well-known experimenter) 
in "American Garden," a few years back, will 
recall the great variety of implements which he 
advised for the purpose of extirpating his hered- 
itary foes, the weeds. A variety of these blades 
and tools is shown in Figs. 19 and 20. Mr. Tar- 
ryer contends that the wheel-hoe is much too clumsy 
an affair to allow of the pursuit of an Individ- 



26 



GENERAL ADVICE 



ual weed. While the operator is busy adjusting 
his machine and manipulating it about the cor- 
ners of the garden, the quack- grass has escaped 




19. Some of the Tarryer hoes. 

over the fence or has gone to seed at the other 
end of the plantation. Upon this point Mr. Tar- 
ryer pronounces as follows: 

"Scores of times during the season, the ten or 




>_«? 



20. A stack of gardening weapons, comprising some of 
Tarryer's weeding spuds and thimbles. 



28 GENERAL ADVICE 

fifteen minutes one has to enjoy in the flower, 
fruit and vegetable garden — and that would suffice 
for the needful weeding with the hoes we are 
celebrating — would be lost in harnessing horses 
or adjusting and oiling squeaky wheel -hoes, even 
if everybody had them. The 'Garden' is not big 
enough, nor my patience long enough, to give 
more than an inkling of the unspeakable merits 
of these weapons of society and civilization. 
When Mrs. Tarryer was showing twelve oi' fif- 
teen acres of garden with never a weed to be 
seen, she valued her dozen or more of these light 
implements at five or ten dollars daily; whether 
they were in actual use or adorning the front 
hall, like a hunter's or angler's furniture, made 
no diiference. But where are these millennial 
tools made and sold? Nowhere. They are as 
unknown as the Bible was in the dark ages, 
and we must give a few hints towards manu- 
facturing them. 

"First, about the handles. The ordinary dealer 
or workman may say these knobs can be formed 
on any handles by winding them with leather; 
but just fancy a young maiden setting up her hoe 
meditatively and resting her hands and chin upon 
an old leather knob to reflect upon something that 
has been said to her in the garden, and we shall 
perceive that a knob by some other name would 
smell far sweeter. Moreover, trees grow large 
enough at the butt to furnish all the knobs we 



HOE HANDLES. 



29 




21. A scarifier. 



want — even for broom-sticks— though sawyers, 

turners, dealers and the public seem not to be 

aware of it; yet it must be 

confessed we are so far 

gone in depravity that there 

will be trouble in getting 

those handles. * * * * 

"In a broadcast prayer of 
this public nature, absolute 
specifications would not be 
polite. Black walnut and 
butternut are fragrant as well 
as beautiful timber. Cherry 
is stiff, heavy, durable, and, 
like maple, takes a slippery 

polish. For fine, light handles, 

palm will stick to, butt 

poplar or cottonwood 

cannot be excelled, yet 

straight -grained ash will 

bear more careless usage. 

"The handles of 

Mrs. Tarry er's hoes 



Home-made 
scarifier. 



are never perfectly straight. All the bayonet 
class bend downward in use half an inch or 



that 

cuts 



the 
of 




30 



GENERAL ADVICE 



more ; all the thrust -hoe handles bend up in 
a regular curve (like a fiddle-bow turned over) 
two or three inches. Unless 
they are hung right, these 
hoes are very awkward things. 
When perfectly fit for one, 
they may not fit another — 
that is, a tall, keen -sighted 
person cannot use the 
hoe that is just fit for 
a very short one. * * 
Curves in the handles 
throw centers of grav- 
ity where they belong. 
Good timber generally 
warps in a handle 
about right, only 

implement - mak- 24. one 
ers and babes in of the best 
weeding may not iiand-weed- 
know when it is 
made fast right side up in 
the hoe. 

"There are plenty of 
thrust - hoes in 
market, such as 
they are. Some 
have malleable iron 
sockets and bows 

Finger-weeder. — heavier to the 




23. Home-made 
scarifier or scraper 





25. 



Home-made hand 
weeder. 




SCARIFIERS 



31 



buyer and cheaper to the dealer — instead of wrought- 
iron and steel, such as is required for true worth." 
For many purposes, tools which scrape or scar- 
ify the surface are preferable to hoes which dig 
up the ground. Weeds may be kept down by 
cutting them off, as in walks and often 
in flower-beds, rather than by rooting 
them out. Fig. 21 shows such a tool, 



27. Long 
handled 
trowel. 



28. Improvised 29. Weed- 
trowel, spud. 



30. Weed-cutter. 



and a home-made implement answering the same 
purpose is illustrated in Fig. 22. This latter tool 
is easily made from strong band-iron. Another 
type is suggested in Fig. 23, which represents a 
slicing -hoe made by fastening a sheet of metal 
to the tines of a broken fork. 



32 



GENERAL ADVICE 



For small beds of flowers or vegetables, hand- 
weeders of various patterns are essential to easy 
and efficient work. One of the best pat- 
terns, with long and short handles, is 
shown in Fig. 24. Another style, which 
may be made at home of hoop -iron, is 
drawn in Fig. 25. A finger -weeder is 
shown in Fig. 26. Many patterns of 
hand-weeders are in the market, and 
other forms will suggest themselves to 
the operator. 

Small hand -tools for digging, as trow- 
els, dibbers and spuds, may be had of 
dealers. In buying a trowel it is econ- 
omy to pay an extra price and secure a 
steel blade with a strong shank which 
runs through the entire length of the 
handle. One of these tools 
will last several years 
be used in hard 
the cheap trowels 
generally hardly 
worth the buy- 
ing. One of 
the steel imple- 
ments may be 
secured to a 
long handle; or the blade of a broken trowel may 
be utilized in the same way (Fig. 27). A very 
good trowel may also be made from a discarded 





Weed-cutter. 



32. Hand-roller. 



VARIOUS TOOLS 



33 



blade of a mowing -machine (Fig. 28), and it 
answers the purpose of a hand-weeder in many 
places. 

Weed -spuds are shown in Figs. 29, 30, 31. 




33. Roller and marker. 



The first is particularly serviceable in cutting 
docks and other strong weeds from lawns and 




34. Roller and marker. 



pastures. It is provided with a brace to allow it 
to be thrust into the ground with the foot. 

It is often essential that the land be compacted 
after it has been spaded or hoed, and some kind 



34 



GENERAL ADVICE 



of hand -roller is then useful. Very efficient 
iron rollers are in the market, but a good one 

can be made from a hard 

chestnut or oak log, as 

shown in Fig. 32. It 

should be remembered 

that when the surface is 

hard and compact, water 

escapes from it rapidly, 

and plants may suffer for moisture upon arrival 

of warm weather. The roller is useful in two 

ways — to compact the under -surface, in which 




35. Marking-stick. 




36. Tool for spacing out 
plants. 



37. Barrow rigged with 
a marker. 



case the surface should be again loosened as 
soon as the rolling is done ; and to firm the 
earth about seeds (page 10) or the roots of 
newly -set plants. 



MARKERS 



35 



A marker may often be combined with the 
roller to good advantage, as in Fig. 33. Ropes 




38. Hand sled-marker. 



are secured about the cylinder at proper inter- 
vals, and these mark the rows. Knots may be 




39. Trailing sled-marker. 

placed in the ropes to indicate the places where 
plants are to be set or seeds dropped. An exten- 
sion of the same idea is seen in Fig. 34, which 



36 



GENERAL ADVICE 



shows iron or wooden pegs that make holes in 
which very small plants may be set. An L- shaped 
rod projects at one side to mark the place of the 
next row. 

In most instances, the best and most expedi- 
tious method of marking out the garden is by 




40. Adjustable sled-marker. 

the use of the garden line, which is secured to a 
I'eel (Fig. 20), but various other devices are often 
useful. For very small beds, drills or furrows 
may be made by a simple marking -stick (Fig. 
35). A handy marker is shown in Fig. 36. A 
marker can be rigged to a wheel -barrow, as in 
Fig. 37. A rod is secured underneath the front 
truss, and from its end an adjustable trailer, B, 
is hung. The wheel of the barrow marks the 
row, and the trailer indicates the place of the 
next row, thereby keeping the rows parallel. A 
hand sled- marker is shown in Fig. 38, and a 
similar device may be secured to the frame of a 



HOW TO SOW SEEDS 37 

sulky cultivator (Fig. 39) or other wheel tool. 
A good adjustable sled -marker is outlined in 
Fig. 40. 

SOWING AND PLANTING. 

Sowing the seed. — The sled -markers open a 
furrow of sufficient depth for the planting of 
most seeds. If marker furrows are not available, 
a furrow may be opened with a hoe for such deep- 
planted seeds as peas and sweet -peas, or by a 
trowel or end of a rake -stale for smaller seeds. 
Plant when the ground is moist, if possible, and 
preferably just before a rain, if the soil is of 
such character that it will not bake. For shal- 
low-planted seeds, firm the earth above them by 
walking over the row or by patting it down with 
a hoe. Care should be exercised not to sow very 
small and slow -germinating seeds, as celery, car- 
rot, onion, in poorly prepared soil or in land 
which bakes. With such seeds it is well to sow 
seeds of radish or turnip, for these germinate 
quickly and break the crust, and also mark the 
row so that tillage may be begun before the 
regular -crop seeds are up. 

Land may be prevented from baking over the 
seeds by scattering a very thin layer of fine 
litter, as chaff, or of sifted moss or mold, over 
the row. A board is sometimes laid on the row 
to retain the moisture, but it must be lifted 
gradually just as soon as the plants begin to 



38 GENERAL ADVICE 

break the ground, or the plants will be greatly 
injured. Wherever practicable, seed-beds of cel- 
ery and other slow -germinating seeds should be 
shaded. If the beds are watered, be careful that 
the soil is not packed by the force of the water 
or baked by the sun. In thickly sown seed- 
beds, thin or transplant the plants as soon as 
they have made their first true leaves. 

For most home -grounds, seeds may be sown by 
hand, but for large areas of one crop, one of the 
many kinds of seed -sowers may be used. The 
particular methods of sowing seeds are specified 
under the discussions of the different plants, if 
any other than ordinary treatment is required. 
The depth at which seeds are to be sown varies 
with the kind, the soil and its preparation, the 
season, and whether they are planted in the open 
or in the house. In boxes and under glass, it is 
a good rule that the seed be sown to a depth 
equal to twice its own diameter, but deeper sow- 
ing is usually necessary out of doors, particu- 
larly in hot and dry weather. More specific re- 
marks upon propagation by seed and otherwise 
may be found in "The Nurserj'-Book." 

Transplanting young seedlings.— In the 
transplanting of cabbages, tomatoes, flowers, and 
all plants which are recently started from seeds, 
it is important that the ground be thoroughly 
fined and compacted. Plants usually live better 
if transplanted into ground which has been freshly 



TRANSPLANTING 



39 



turned. If possible, transplant in cloudy or rainy 

weather, particularly if late in the season. Firm 

the earth snugly 

about the roots with 

the hands or feet, 

in order to bring up 

the soil moisture ; 

but it is generally 

best to rake the 

surface in order to 

establish the earth -mulch, unless the plants are 

so small that their roots cannot reach through 

the mulch. 

In order to reduce the evaporation from the 




41. Paper screen for newly 
transplanted plants. 








>\xv 




42. Shearing of plants when transplanting. 



plant, shingles may be stuck into the ground so 
as to shade the plant; or a screen may be im- 
provised with pieces of paper (Fig. 41), tin cans. 



40 



GENERAL ADVICE 



inverted flower-pots, coverings of brush, or other 
means. It is nearly always advisable to remove 
some of the foliage, particularly if the plant has 
several leaves and if it has not been grown in a 
pot, and also if the transplanting is done in 




43. Cutting back or shearing the plants. 



warm weather. Fig. 42 shows a good treatment 
for transplanted plants. With the foliage all left 
on, the plants are likely to behave as in the 
upper row, but with most of it cut off, as in the 
lower row, there is little wilting, and new leaves 
soon start. Fig. 43 also shows what part of the 
leaves may be cut off on transplanting. If the 



DIBBERS 



41 



soil is freshly turned and the transplanting is 
well done, it rarely will be necessary to water the 
plants; but if watering is necessary, it should 




44. A serviceable 
dibber. 



45. Transplanting by means 
of a dibber. 



be done at nightfall, and the surface should be 
loosened the next morning, or as soon as it be- 
comes dry. 

In the transplanting of young plants, some kind 
of a dibber should be used to make the holes. 



42 



GENERAL ADVICE 



Dibbers make holes without removing any of the 
earth. A good form of dibber is shown in Fig. 



44, which is like a 
Many persons prefer 
conical dibber, like 

45. For hard soils 
strong dibber may 
which has a right- 
serve as a handle, 
softened by slipping 





flat or plane trowel, 
a cylindrical and 
that shown in Fig. 
and larger plants, a 
be made from a limb 
angled branch to 
This handle may be 
a piece of rubber 



46. A home-made 
and padded dibber. 



47. Dibber and 
crow-bar combined. 



48. Strawberry 
planter. 



hose on it (Fig. 46). A long iron dibber, which 
may also be used as a crow-bar, is shown in 



DIBBERS 



43 



Fig. 47. In transplanting with the dibber, a 
hole is first made, by a thrust of the tool, and 
the earth is then pressed against the root by 




49. Plunging pots. 50. Setting large tub-plants in the lawn. 



means of the foot, hand, or the dibber itself 
(as in Fig. 45). The hole is not filled by put- 
ting in dirt at the top. 

For large plants, a broader dibber may be used. 
An implement like that shown in Fig. 48 is use- 
ful for setting strawberries and other plants with 
large roots. It is made of two -inch plank, with 
a block on top to act as foot -rest and to prevent 
the blade from going too deep. In order to pro- 
vide space for the foot and to easily direct the 



44 GENERAL ADVICE 

thrust, the handle may be placed at one side of 
the middle. For plunging pots, a dibber like 
that shown in Fig. 49 is useful, particularly when 
the soil is so hard that a long -pointed tool is 
necessary. The bottom of the hole may be filled 
with earth before the pot is inserted; but it is 
often advisable to leave the vacant space below 
(as in h) to provide drainage, to keep the plant 
from rooting, and to prevent earth-worms from 
entering the hole in the bottom of the pot. 
For smaller pots, the tool may be inserted a 
less depth (as at c) . 

Transplanting established plants and 
TREES. — In setting potted plants out of doors, 
it is nearly alwaj'S advisable to plunge them, — 
that is, to set the pots into the earth, — unless 
the place is very wet. The pots are then watered 
by the rainfall, and demand little care. If the 
plants are to be returned to the house in the 
fall, they should not be allowed to root through 
the hole in the pot, and the rooting may be 
prevented by turning the pot around ever}^ few 
days. Large decorative plants may be made to 
look as if growing naturally in the lawn by 
sinking the pot or box just below the surface 
level and rolling the sod over it, as suggested 
in Fig. 50. A space around and below the tub 
may be provided to insure drainage. 

For the shifting of very large tub -plants, a 
box or tub with moveable sides, as in Fig. 51, 



TRANSPLANTING TREES 



45 



is handy and efficient. The plant -box recom- 
mended to parties who grew plants for exhibition 
at the World's Fair is shown in Fig. 52. It is 
made of strong boards or planks. At A is shown 
the inside of one of two opposite sections or 
sides, four feet wide at top, three feet wide at 
bottom and three feet high. The cleats are two- 
by-four scantlings, through which holes are bored 
to admit the bolts with which the box is to be 
held together. B is an outside view of one of 
the alternating sections, 
three feet four inches 
wide at top, two feet 
four inches at bottom, 
and three feet deep. 
A one -by -six strip is 
nailed through the cen- 
ter to give strength. 
C is an end view of 
A, showing the bolts 
and also a two-by-four 
cleat to which the bottom is to be nailed, 
box was used mostly for transporting 
growing stock to the exposition, the stock having 
been dug from the open and the box secured 
around the ball of earth. 

Very large trees can often be moved with safety. 
It is essential that the transplanting be done 
when the trees are perfectly dormant, — winter 
being preferable, — that a large mass of earth and 




51. 



Plant-box with a move- 
able side. 



This 
large 



46 



GENERAL ADVICE 



roots be taken with the tree, and that the top 
be vigorously cut back. Large trees are often 
moved in winter upon a stone -boat, by securing 
a large ball of earth frozen about the roots. 
This frozen ball is secured by digging about the 




52. Box for transporting large transplanted stock. 



tree for several days in succession, so that the 
freezing progresses with the excavation. A good 
device for moving such trees is shown in Fig. 
53. The trunk of the tree is securely wrapped 
with burlaps or other soft material, and a ring 
or chain is then secured about it. A long pole, 



MOVING LARGE TREES . 47 

&, is run over the truck of a wagon and the end 
of it is secured to the chain or ring upon the tree. 
This pole is a lever for raising the tree out of 
the ground. A team is hitched to a, and a man 
holds the pole h. 

The following more explicit directions for mov- 
ing large trees are by Edward Hicks, who has had 
much experience in the business, and who made 
this report to the press a few years ago: "In 
moving large trees, say those ten to twelve inches 
in diameter and twenty -five to thirty feet high, 
it is well to prepare them by trimming and 
cutting or sawing off the roots at a proper dis- 
tance from the trunks, say six to eight feet, 
in June. The cut roots heal over and send out 
fibrous roots, which should not be injured more 
than is necessary in moving the trees next fall 
or spring. Young, thrifty maples and elms, 
originally from the nursery, do not need such 
Ijreparation nearly as much as other and older 
trees. In moving a tree, we begin by digging 
a wide trench six to eight feet from it, leaving 
all possible roots fast to it. By digging under 
the tree in the wide trench, and working the 
soil out of the roots by means of round or 
dull -pointed sticks, the soil falls into the cavity 
made under the tree. Three or four men in as 
many hours could get so much of the soil away 
from the roots that it would be safe to attach a 
rope and tackle to the upper part of the trunk 



48 



GENERAL ADVICE 



and to some adjoining post or tree for the pur- 
pose of pulling the tree over. A good quantity 
of bagging must be put around tlie tree under 
the rope to prevent injury, and care should be 
taken that the pulling of the rope does not split 

off or break a limb. A 
team is hitched to the end 
of the draft rope, and slowl}^ 
driven in the proper direction 
to pull the tree over. If 
the tree does not readily tip 
over, dig under and cut off 
any fast root. While it is 
tipped over, work out more 
of the soil with the sticks. 
Now pass a large 
rope, double, 

around a few 
large roots close 
to the tree, leav- 
ing the ends of 
the rope turned 
up by the trunk to be used in lifting the tree 
at the proper time. Tip the tree in the op- 
posite direction and put another large rope 
around the large roots close to the trunk; remove 
more soil and see that no roots are fast to the 
ground. Four guy -ropes attached to the upper 
parts of the tree, as shown in the cut (Fig. 54), 
should be put on properly and used to prevent 




53. Moving a lai-ge tree. 



MOVING LARGE TREES 



49 



the tree from tipping over too far as well as 
to keep it upright. A good deal of the soil 
can be put back in the hole without covering 
the roots, to get it out of the way of the ma- 
chine. The latter can now be placed about the 
tree by removing the front part, fastened by 
four bolts, placing the frame with the hind 




G^_ ;,>^^' ^.It^ 



54. The tree ready to lift. 



wheels around the tree and replacing the front 
parts. Two timbers, three -by -nine inches, and 
twenty feet long, are now placed on the ground 
under the hind wheels, and in front of them, 
parallel to each other, for the purpose of keep- 
ing the hind wheels up out of the big hole 
when drawing the tree away ; and they are 
also used while backing the hind wheels across 
the new hole in which the tree is to be planted. 



50 



GENERAL ADVICE 



The machine (Figs. 54, 55) consists of a hind 
axle twelve feet long, and broad -tired wheels. 
The frame is made of spruce three -by -eight 
inches and twent}^ feet long. The braces are 
three -b}"- five inches and ten feet long, and up- 
right three -by -nine inches and three feet high; 




The tree ready to move. 



these are bolted to the hind axle and main frame. 
The front axle has a set of blocks bolted together 
and of sufficient height to support the front end 
of the frame. . Into the top timbers, three -by -six 
inches, hollows are cut at the proper distances 
to receive the ends of two locust rollers. A 
windlass or winch is put at each end of the 
frame, by which trees can easily and steadily be 
lifted and lowered, the large double ropes pass- 



MOVING LARGE TREES 51 

ing over the rollers to the windlasses. A locust 
boom is put across the machine under the frame 
and above the braces; iron pins hold it in place. 
The side guy -ropes are made fast to the ends of 
this boom. The other guy -ropes are made fast 
to the front and rear parts of the machine. Four 
rope loops are made fast inside of the frame, and 
are so placed that by passing a rope around the 
trunk of the tree and through the loops two or 
three times, a rope ring is made around the tree 
that will keep the trunk in the middle of the 
frame and not allow it to hit either the edges or 
the rollers — a very necessary safeguard. As the 
tree is slowly lifted by the windlasses, the guy- 
ropes are loosened, as needed. The tree will 
pass obstructions, such as trees by the roadside, 
but in doing so it is better to lean the tree back- 
ward. When the tree has arrived at its new 
place, the two timbers are placed along the oppo- 
site edges of the hole so that the hind wheels 
can be backed over it. The tree is then lowered 
to the proper depth, and made plumb by the 
guy -ropes, and good, mellow soil is thrown in 
and packed well into all the cavities under the 
roots. When the hole is half filled, several bar- 
rels of w^ater should be poured in; this will 
wash the soil into the cavities under the center 
of the tree much better. When the water has 
settled away, fill in and pack the soil till the 
hole is little more than full. Leave a depression, 



52 



GENERAL ADVICE 



SO that all the rain that may fall will be retained. 
The tree should now be judiciously trimmed and 
the machine removed. Five men can take up, 
move and plant a tree in a day, if the distance 







56. Tree well planted. 



Tree not well planted. 



is short and the digging not too hard. The tree 
should be properly wired to stakes to prevent the 
wind from blowing it over. The front part of 
the machine is a part of our platform spring 
market -wagon, while the hind wheels are from a 
wood -axle wagon. A tree ten inches in diame- 



PRUNING THE TOPS 



53 



ter, with some dirt adhering to its roots, will 
weigh a ton or more." 

In the planting of any tree or bush, the roots 
should be cut back beyond all breaks and serious 
bruises, and the earth should be 
thoroughly filled in and firmed 
about them, as in Fig. 56. No 
implement is so 
good as the fin- 
gers for working 
the soil about 

the roots. If the 

tree has many 

roots, work it up 

and down slightly 

several times dur- 
ing the filling of 

the hole, to settle 

the earth in place. 
When the earth is thrown in 
roots are jammed together, and often an empty 
place is left beneath the crown, as in Fig. 57, 
which causes the roots to dry out. 

The marks upon the tops of these trees in Figs. 
56 and 57 show where the branches should be cut 
off. See also Fig. 66. Figs. 58 and 59 show 
the tops of trees after pruning. Strong, branchy 
trees, as apples, pears and ornamental trees, are 
usually headed back in this way, upon planting. 
If the tree has one straight leader and many or 




58. Pruned tree. 




Pruned tree 



carelessly, the 



54 



General advice 



several slender branches (Fig. 60), it is nsnally 
pruned as in Fig. 61, each branch being cut back 




i 



f 



f 




60- Peach tree. 



61. Peach tree pruned 
for planting. 



to one or two buds. If there are no branches, 
or very few of them, — in which case there will 
be good buds upon the main stem, — the leader 



WHEN TO PLANT 55 

may be cut back a third or half its length, to a 
mere whip. Ornamental bushes with long tops 
are usually cut back a third or a half when set, 
as shown in Fig. 150. Full discussions of both 
pruning and training may be found in " The Prun- 
ing- Book." 

In general, it is best to set all hardy plants in 
the fall, particularly if the soil is fairly dry and 
the exposure is not too bleak. To this class 
belong most of the fruit trees and ornamental 
trees and shrubs; also hard}^ herbs, like colum- 
bines, peonies, lilies, bleeding -hearts, and the like. 
They should be planted as soon as they are thor- 
oughly mature, so that the leaves begin to fall 
naturally. If any leaves remain upon the tree 
or bush at planting time, strip them off, unless 
the plant is an evergreen. It is generall}^ best 
not to cut back fall -plan ted trees to the full 
extent desired, but to shorten them in three- 
fourths of the required amount in the fall, and 
take off the remaining fourth in the spring, so 
that no dead or dry tips are left upon the plant. 
Evergreens, as pines and spruces, are not headed- 
in much, and usually not at all. All tender 
and very small plants should be set in the spring, 
in which case very early planting is desirable. 

In well -compacted land, trees and shrubs should 
be set at about the same depth as they stood in 
the nursery, but if the land has been deeply 
trenched or if it is loose from other causes, the 



56 



GENERAL ADVICE 



plants should be set deeper, because the earth 
will probably settle. The hole should be filled 
with fiue surface earth. It is generally not ad- 




*"l^fiMMit'^u>^ 



62. Planting-board. 

visable to place manure in the hole, but if it is 
used it should be of small amount and very 
thoroughly mixed with the earth, else it will cause 
the soil to dry out. In lawns and other places 
where surface tillage cannot be given, a light 
mulch of litter or manure may be placed about 




Device for locating the tree. 



the plants; but the earth -mulch (page 8), when 
it can be secured, is much the best conserver of 
moisture. 

In order to set trees in rows, it is necessary to 
use a garden line (Fig. 20), or to mark out the 
ground with some of the devices already described 
(Figs. 33-40) ; or in large areas, the place may be 



MAKING THE ROWS STRAIGHT 



57 



staked out.* There are various devices for locat- 
ing the place of the stake after the stake has been 
removed and the hole dug. One of the simplest 
and best is shown in Fig. 62. It is a simple nar- 
row and thin board with a notch in the center and 







64. Setting trees to a line. 

a peg in either end, one of the pegs being sta- 
tionary. The implement is so placed that the 
notch meets the stake; then one end of it is 
thrown out of the way until the hole is dug. 
When the implement is brought again to its origi- 
nal position, the notch marks the place of the 



*Very full directions for laying out orchards are given in " Principles 
of Fruit-Growing." 



58 



GENERAL ADVICE 



stake and the tree. Fig. 63 is a device with a lid, 
in the end of which is a notch to mark the place 
of the stake. This lid is thrown back, as shown 
by the dotted lines, when the hole is being dug. 
Fig. 64 shows a method of bringing trees in row 
by measuring from a line. 

WINTER PROTECTION OF PLANTS. 

If the ground is not ready for planting in the 
fall, or if it is desired to delay until spring, the 
trees or bushes may be heeled -in, as illustrated in 
Fig. 65. The roots are laid in a furrow or trench, 
and are covered with well -firmed earth. Straw 
or manure may be thrown over the earth to still 
further protect the roots, but if it is thrown over 
the tops mice may be attracted by it and the trees 







65. Trees heeled -in for the winter. 



MOUNDING AND MULCHING 



59 




be girdled. Tender trees or bushes may be 
lightly covered to the tips with earth. Plants 
should be heeled -in only in loose, warm, loamy 
or sandy soil and in a well -drained place. 

Fall -planted trees should generally be mounded 
up, sometimes even as high as 
shown in Fig. 66. This hilling 
holds the tree in position, carries 
off the water, prevents too deep 
freezing, and holds the earth 
from heaving. The mound is 
taken away in the spring. It 
is sometimes advisable to mound 
up established trees in the fall,- 
but on well -drained land the 
practice is not usually necessary. 
In hilling trees, pains should be taken not to 
leave deep holes, from which the earth was dug, 
close to the tree, for water collects in them. 

It is always advisable to mulch plants which are 
set in the fall. Any loose and dry material — as 
straw, manure, leaves, leaf -mold, litter from yards 
and stables, pine boughs — may be used for this 
purpose. Very strong or compact manures, as 
that in which there is little straw or litter, should 
be avoided. The ground may be covered to a 
depth of five or six inches, or even a foot or more 
if the material is loose. Avoid throwing strong 
manure directly upon the crown of the plants, 
especially of herbs, for the materials which leach 



G6. Tree earthed 
up for winter. 



60 GENERAL ADVICE 

from the manure sometimes injure the crown 
buds and the roots. 

This protection may also be ^'iven to established 
plants, particularly to those which, like roses and 
herbaceous plants, are expected to give a profusion 
of bloom the following year. This mulch affords 
not only winter protection, but is an efficient 
means of fertilizing the land. A large part of 
the plant -food materials have leached out of the 
mulch by spring, and have become incorporated in 
the soil, where the plant makes ready use of them. 
Mulches also serve a most useful purpose in pre- 
venting the ground from packing and baking from 
the weight of snows and rains, and the cementing 
action of too much water in the surface soil. In 
the spring, the coarser parts of the mulch may be 
removed, and the finer parts spaded or hoed into 
the ground. 

Tender bushes and small trees may be wrapped 
up with straw, hay, burlaps, or pieces of matting 
or carpet. Even rather large trees, like bearing 
peach trees, are often baled up in this way, or 
sometimes with corn fodder, although the results 
in the protection of fruit buds are not often very 
satisfactory. It is important that no grain is left 
in the baling material, else mice may be attracted 
to it. It should be known, too, that the object in 
tying up or baling plants is not so much to pro- 
tect from direct cold as to mitigate the effects of 
alternate freezing and thawing, and to protect 



WINTER PROTECTION 



61 



from drying winds. Plants may be wrapped so 
thick and tight as to injure them. Be sure that 
no water stands about the roots of tender trees, 
and cover the surrounding ground with a heavy 
mulch of leaves or straw. The labor of protecting 
large plants is often great and the results uncer- 
tain, and in most cases it is a question if more 
satisfaction could not be obtained by growing 
only hardy trees and shrubs. 

The objection to covering tender woody plants 
cannot be urged with equal force against tender 




67. Covering plants with a box. 



herbs or very low bushes, for these are protected 
with ease. Even the ordinary mulch may afford 
sufficient protection; and if the tops kill back, the 
plant quickly renews itself from the base, and in 
many plants, — as in most hybrid perpetual roses, — 
the best bloom is upon these new growths of the 
season. Old boxes or barrels may be used to pro- 
tect tender low plants (Figs. 67, 68). The box is 
filled with leaves or dry straw, and either left 



62 



GENERAL ADVICE 



open on top or covered with boards, boughs or 
even with burlaps (Fig. 68). 

The tops of plants may be laid down for the 
winter. Fig. 69 shows a method of laying down 
blackberries, as practiced in the Hudson River 
Valley. The plants were tied to a trellis, as the 
method is in that country, two wires (a, h) having 
been run upon either side of the row. The posts 
are hinged on a pivot to a short post (c), and are 

held in position by a brace 
(d) . The entire trellis is 
then laid down upon the ap- 
proach of winter, as shown 
in the illustration. The 
blackberry tops are so strong 
that they hold the wires up 
from the ground, even when 
the trellis is laid down. To 
hold the wires close to the 
earth, stakes are thrust over them in a slanting 
position, as shown at n n. The snow which 
drifts through the plants ordinarily affords suffi- 
cient protection for plants which are as hardy 
as grapes and berries. In fact, the plants may 
be uninjured even without cover, since, in their 
prostrate position, they escape the cold and dry- 
ing winds. 

In severe climates, or in the case of tender 
plants, the tops should be covered with straw, 
boughs or litter, as recommended for regular 




68. Protecting plants 
with a barrel. 



LAYING DOWN PLANTS 



63 



mulch -covers. Sometimes a V-shaped trough 
made from two boards is placed over the stems 
of long or vine -like plants which have been laid 
down. All plants with slender or more or less 
pliant stems can be laid down with ease. With 




69, Laying down trellis-grown blackberries. 



such protection, figs can be grown in the northern 
states. Peach and other fruit trees may be so 
trained as to be tipped over and covered. For an 
account of the method, see "Principles of Fruit- 
Growing." 

Laid -down plants are often injured by the reten- 
tion of the covering too late in the spring. The 
ground warms up early, and may start the buds 
on parts of the buried plants, and these tender 
buds may be broken when the plants are raised. 



64 GENERAL ADVICE 

or injured by sun, wind or frost. The plants 
should be raised while the wood and buds are 
still hard and dormant. 

Inasmuch as dark colors absorb heat, and light 
colors reflect it,' Whitten, of the Missouri Experi- 
ment Station ( Bulletin 38 ) , was led to try the 
effects of whitewashing peach trees for the pur- 
pose of preventing the premature swelling of the 
buds. The results were marked and satisfactory. 
The following quotations explain the method and 
results: "The expense of whitening is not great. 
A common lime whitewash was at first used, but 
it washed off badly during rainy weather. Finally 
a whitewash of lime, with one -fifth skim milk 
added to the water, was tried with much more 
satisfactory results. About one pound of salt was 
also dissolved in each bucketful of the whitewash. 
Four applications of this wash, applied during the 
winter and spring, are sufficient to keep the peach 
trees thoroughly whitened. The first whitening 
should be done early in winter, shortly before 
Christmas. The wash may be sprayed on with 
almost any kind of a spray pump. We found the 
Bordeaux nozzle to be satisfactory, as a solid 
stream could readily be turned on if the lime 
clogged the nozzle. The whitening should be 
repeated as often as the lime is washed off by 
rains. A good wash, however, will adhere well 
for weeks. The trees need two sprayings to begin 
with, just as wood needs two coats of paint in 



WHITEWASHING TREES 65 

order to cover it well. Two subsequent sprayings 
are sufficient. The whitewash should be made as 
thick as can be sprayed through a Bordeaux noz- 
zle. We used a small bucket spray pump, and 
applied about one -half a bucketful to a tree at 
each spraying. The time required to apply the 
whitewash will vary from five to ten minutes, 
according to the kind of pump and to the size of 
the trees. The more trees that are sprayed, the 
cheaper it can be done per tree. Altogether, the 
cost need not exceed ten cents per tree for the 
winter." 

Following is a summary of the results: 

"In this latitude, winter -killing of the fruit- 
buds of the peach is usually due to the unfavor- 
able effects of freezing after they have been stimu- 
lated into growth by warm weather, during win- 
ter or early spring. 

"This early swelling and growth of the buds is 
due to the warmth they receive, is practically inde- 
pendent of root action, and may take place on 
warm, sunny days in winter, while the roots are 
frozen and dormant. 

"Peach fruit -buds may safely endure a tempera- 
ture of ten or twenty degrees below zero, provided 
they mature well in autumn, are entirely dormant, 
and the cold comes on gradually. 

"Zero weather may kill fruit -buds that have 
swollen during previous warm days, or that were 
not properly ripened in autumn. 



66 GENERAL ADVICE 

"Shading or whitening peach trees to prevent 
their absorbing heat on sunny days, opposes 
growth of the buds and is, consequently, a pro- 
tective measure. 

"Shading the trees with board sheds enabled 
peach buds to survive the winter uninjured, when 
eighty per cent of unprotected buds were killed. 
Trees protected in this way blossomed later, 
remained in bloom longer, set more fruit in pro- 
portion to the number of apparently perfect 
flowers, and held their fruit better than any other 
trees on the station grounds. This is the most 
effective means of winter protection tried at the 
station, but it is probably too expensive for com- 
mercial orchards. 

"Whitening the twigs and buds by spraying 
them with whitewash is, on account of its cheap- 
ness and beneficial effects, the most promising 
method of winter protection tried at this station. 

"Whitened buds remained practically dormant 
until April, when unprotected buds swelled per- 
ceptibly during warm days late in February and 
early in March. Whitened buds blossomed three 
to six days later than unprotected buds. Eighty 
per cent of whitened buds passed the winter 
safely, when only twenty per cent of un whitened 
buds passed the winter unharmed. 

"Thermometers covered with purple material 
registered, during bright, sunny weather, from ten 
to over twenty degrees higher than thermometers 



GETTING PLANTS EARLY 



67 



covered with white material of similar texture, 
thus iudicatiug- that whitened peach twigs might 
be expected to absorb much less heat than those 
that were not whitened." 



THE FORCING OF PLANTS 

There are three general means of forcing plants 
ahead of their season in the early spring — by 
means of hand boxes and forcing -hills, by cold- 
frames, and by hotbeds. 

The forcing -hill is an arrangement by means of 
which a single plant or a single hill of plants may 
be forced where it permanently stands. This type 
of forcing may be applied to perennial plants, as 
rhubarb and asparagus, or 
to annuals, as melons and 
cucumbers. Fig. 70 illus- 
trates a common method 
of hastening the growth 
of rhubarb in the spring. 
A box made with four 
removable sides, two of 
which are shown in end 
section in the figure, is 
placed around the plant 
in the fall. The inside of the box is filled with 
straw or litter, and the outside is banked thor- 
oughl}^ with any refuse, to prevent the ground from 
freezing. When it is desired to start the plants, 
the covering is removed from both the inside and 




Forcing of rhubarb. 



68 



GENERAL ADVICE 



outside of the box, and hot manure is piled around 
the box to its top. If the weather is still cold, 
dry light leaves or straw may be placed inside the 
box, or a pane or sash of glass may be placed on 
top of the box, to answer the purpose of a cold- 
frame. Ehubarb, asparagus, sea -kale and similar 
plants may be advanced from two to four weeks 
by means of this method of forcing. Some gar- 
deners use old barrels or half -barrels in place of 




the box. The box, however, is better and handier, 
and the sides can be stored for future use. 

Plants which require a long season in which to 
mature, and which do not transplant readil}', as 
melons and cucumbers, may be planted in forcing- 
hills in the field. One of these hills is shown in 
Fig. 71. The frame or mold is shown at the 
left. This mold is a box with flaring sides and 
no top or bottom, and provided with a handle. 
This frame is placed with the small end down at 
the point where the seeds are to be planted, and 
the earth is hilled up about it and firmly packed 
with the feet. The mold is then withdrawn, and 
a pane of glass is laid upon the top of the mound 



FORCING -HILLS 



69 



to concentrate the sun's rays, and to prevent the 
bank from washing down with the rains. A clod 
of earth or a stone may be placed upon the pane 
to hold it down. This type of forcing -hill is not 
much used, because the bank of earth is apt to 
wash away, and heavy rain coming up when the 
glass is off will fill the hill with water and di'own 
the plant. However, it can be used to very good 
advantage in cases where the gardener can give it 
close attention. 

A forcing -hill is sometimes made by digging a 
hole in the ground and planting the seeds in the 




72. Hand -box. 

bottom of it, placing the pane of glass upon a 
slight ridge or mound which is made upon the 
surface of the ground. This method is less 
desirable than the other, because the seeds are 
placed in the poorest and coldest soil, and the 
hole is very apt to fill with water in the early days 
of spring. 

An excellent type of forcing -hill is made by the 



70 



GENERAL ADVICE 



use of the hand -box, as shown in Fig. 72. This 
is a rectangular box, without top or bottom, and 
a pane of glass is slipped into a groove at the top. 
It is really a miniature coldframe. The earth is 
banked up slightly about the box, in order to hold 
it against winds and to prevent the water from 
running into it. If these boxes are made of good 
lumber and painted, they will last for many years. 
Any size of glass maj^ be used which is desired, 
but a ten-by- twelve pane is as good as any for 
general purposes. 

After the plants are thoroughly established in 
these forcing -hills, and the weather is settled, the 
protection is wholly removed, and the plants grow 
normally in the open. 

A very good temporary protection may be given 
to tender plants by using four panes of glass, as 
explained in Fig. 73, 
the two inner panes 
being held together at 
the top by a block of 
wood through which 
four nails are driven. 
Plants are more likely 
to burn in these glass 
frames than in the hand- 
boxes, and such frames 

are not so well adapted to the protection of plants 
in very early spring ; but they are often useful 
for special purposes. 




73. Panes of glass used 
for a forcing-hill. 



COLDFRAMES 71 

In all forcing -hills, as in coldframes and hot- 
beds, it is exceedingly important that the plants 
receive plenty of air upon bright days. Plants 
which are kept too close become weak or "drawn," 
and lose the ability to withstand changes of 
weather when the protection is removed. Even 
though the wind is cold and raw, the plants inside 
the frames will ordinarily not suffer if the glass 
is taken off when the sun is shining. 

Coldframes. — A coldframe is nothing more 
than an enlarged hand -box ; that is, instead of 
protecting but a single plant or a single hill with a 
single pane of glass, it is covered with sash, and 
is large enough to accommodate many plants. 
There are three general purposes for which a 
coldframe is used: For the starting of plants 
early in spring ; for receiving partially hardened 
plants which have been started earlier in hotbeds 
and forcing -houses ; for wintering young cab- 
bages, lettuce and other hardy plants which are 
sown in the fall. 

Coldframes are ordinarily placed near the build- 
ings, and the plants are transplanted into the 
field when settled weather comes. Sometimes, 
however, they are made directly in the field where 
the plants are to remain, and the frames, and not 
the plants, are removed. When used for this lat- 
ter purpose, the frames are made very cheap by 
running two rows of parallel planks through 
the field at a distance apart of six feet. The 



72 



GENERAL ADVICE 



plank upon the north is ordinarily ten to twelve 
inches wide, and that upon the south eight to ten 
inches. These planks are held in place 
by stakes, and the sashes are laid 
across them. Seeds of radishes, beets, 
lettuce, and the like, are then 
sown beneath the sash, and 
when settled weather 
arrives the sash and 
planks are removed 
and the plants are 
growing naturally in 
the field. Half-hardy 
plants, like those men- 
tioned, may be started 
fully two or three 
weeks ,in advance of 
the normal season by this means. 

One of the simplest types of coldframes is 
shown in Fig. 74, which is a lean-to against the 
foundation of a house. A sill is run just above 
the surface of the ground, and the sashes, shown 
at D, are laid upon rafters which run from this sill 
to the sill of the house, A. If this frame is upon 
the south side of the building, plants may be 
started even as early as a month before the open- 
ing of the season. Such lean-to frames are some- 
times made against greenhouses or warm cellars, 
and heat is supplied to them by the opening of a 
door in the wall, as at B. In frames which are in 




74, Coldframe 
against a building. 



LEAN-TO COLDFRAMES 



73 



such sunny positions as these, it is exceedingly 
important that care be taken to remove the sash, 
or at least to give ample ventilation, upon all 
sunny days. 

A different type of lean-to structure is shown 
in Fig. 75. This may be either a temporary or 
permanent building, and it is generally used for 




--.T — -Txft 



75. Coldframe, or weather screen, against a building. 



the protection of half-hardy plants which are 
grown in pots and tubs. It may be used, however, 
for the purpose of forwarding pot -plants earl}- in 
the spring and for the protection of peaches, 
grapes, oranges or other fruits in tubs or boxes. 
If it is desired to simply protect the plants through 
the winter, it is best to have the structure upon the 



74 



GENERAL ADVICE 



north side of the building, in order that the sun 
may not force the plants into activity. 

The common type of coldframe is shown in Fig. 
76. It is twelve feet long and six feet wide, and 
is covered with four three-by-six sash. It is made 
of ordinar}^ lumber loosely nailed together. If 
one expects to use coldframes or hotbeds every 
year, however, it is advisable to make the frames 
of two -inch stuff, well painted, and to join the 
parts by bolts and tenons, so that they may be 
taken apart and stored until needed for the next 
year's crop. Fig. 77 suggests a method of mak- 
ing the frames so that they may be taken apart. 

It is always advisable to place coldframes and 
hotbeds in a protected place, and especially to 
protect them from cold north winds. Buildings 
afford excellent protection, but the sun is some- 
times too hot upon the south side of large and 







76. A coldframe. 



light -colored buildings. One of the best means 
of protection is to plant a hedge of evergreens, as 
shown in Fig. 78. It is always desirable, also, to 



PORTABLE COLDFRAMES 



75 



place all the coldframes and hotbeds close together, 
for the purpose of economizing time and labor. 

Various small and portable coldframes may be 
used about the garden for the protection of ten- 
der plants or to start them early in the spring. 
Pansies, daisies and border carnations, for ex- 
ample, may be brought on very early by setting 
such frames over them or by planting them under 
the frames in the fall. These frames maj be of 
any size desired, and the sash may be either re- 




77. A method of making a frame. 



movable, or, in case of small frames, they may be 
hinged at the top. Figs. 79-82 illustrate various 
types of handy frames. 

Hotbeds. — A hotbed differs from a coldframe 
in having artificial bottom heat. This heat is 
ordinarily supplied by means of fermenting ma- 
nure, but it may be obtained from other ferment- 
ing material, as tan -bark or leaves, or from arti- 
ficial heat, as flues, steam pipes or water pipes. 
The hotbed is used for the very early starting of 
plants, and when the plants have outgrown the 
bed, or have become too thick, they are trans- 



76 



GENERAL ADVICE 



planted into cooler hotbeds or into coldframes. 
There are many crops, however, which are carried 




78. Coldframe against a hedge, and protected by straw mats. 



to full maturity in the hotbed itself, as radishes 
and lettuce. The date at which the hotbed may 
be started with safety depends almost entirely 
upon the means at command of heating it and 
upon the skill of the operator. In the northern 
states, where outdoor gardening does not begin 
until the first or the last of May, hotbeds are 
sometimes started as early as January; but they 
are ordinarily delayed until early in March. 

The heat for hotbeds is commonly supplied by 
the fermentation of horse manure. It is impor- 
tant that the manure be as uniform as possible 



HOTBEDS 



77 



in composition and textnre, that it come from 
highly -fed horses, and is practically of the same 
age. The best resnlts 
are generally obtained 
from manure from liv- 
ery stables, from which 
it can be obtained in 
large quantities in a 
short space of time. ^^^^^ 
Perhaps as much as 
one -half of the whole 
material should be of litter or straw which has 
been used in the bedding. The manure is piled 
in a long and shallow square -topped pile, not 




79. Portable coldframe. 




Portable coldframe. 



more than four or six feet high as a rule, and is 
then allowed to ferment. Better results are gen- 
erall}^ obtained if the manure is piled under cover. 
If the weather is cold and fermentation does not 
start readily, wetting the pile with hot water may 
start it. The first fermentation is nearly always 
irregular; that is, it begins unequally in several 
places in the pile. In order to make the fermen- 



78 



GENERAL ADVICE 



tation uniform, the pile must be turned occa- 
sionally, taking care to break up all hard lumps 




81. Portable coldframe. 

and to distribute the hot manure throughout the 
mass. It is sometimes necessary to turn the pile 
five or six times before it is finally used, although 
half this number of turnings is ordinarily suffi- 
cient. When the pile is steaming uniformly 
throughout, it is placed in the hotbed, and is 




Small coldframe. 



covered with the earth in which the plants are to 
be grown. 

Hotbed frames are sometimes set on top of the 
pile of fermenting manure, as shown in Fig. 83. 
The manure should extend for some distance 
beyond the edges of the frame; otherwise the 
frame will become too cold about the outside, and 
the plants will suffer. It is preferable, however, 



HEAT FOR HOTBEDS 



79 



to have a pit beneath the frame in which the ma- 
nure is placed. If the bed is to be started in 
midwinter or very early in the spring, it is ad- 
visable to make this pit in the fall and to fill it 
with straw or other litter to prevent"] the earth 
from freezing deep. When it is time to make the 
bed, the litter is thrown out, and the ground is 
warm and ready to receive the fermenting ma- 
nure. The pit should be a foot wider upon either 




83. Hotbed with manure on top of the ground. 

side than the width of the frame. Fig. 84 is a 
cross -section of such a hotbed pit. Upon the 
ground a layer of an inch or two of any coarse 
material is placed to keep the manure off the cold 
earth. Upon this, from twelve to thirty inches 
of manure is placed. Above the manure is a thin 
layer of leaf -mold or some porous material, which 
will serve as a distributor of the heat, and above 
this is four or five inches of soft garden loam, in 
which the plants are to be grown. 



80 



GENERAL ADVICE 



It is advisable to place the manure in the pit in 
layers, each stratum to be thoroughly trodden 
down before another one is put in. These layers 
should be from four to eight inches in thickness. 
By this means the mass is easily made uniform in 
consistency. Manure which has too much straw 
for the best results, and which will therefore soon 
part with its heat, will spring lip quickly when 




84. Section of a hotbed. 



the pressure of the feet is removed. Manure 
which has too little straw, and which therefore 
will not heat well or will spend its heat quickly, 
will pack down into a soggy mass underneath the 
feet. When the manure has sufficient litter, it 
will give a springy feeling to the feet as a person 
walks over it, but will not fluff up when the 



HOTBEDS 



81 



pressure is removed. The amount of manure 
which is to be used will depend upon its quality, 
and also upon the season in which the hotbed is 
made. The earlier the bed is made, the larger 
should be the quantity of manure. Hotbeds 
which are supposed to hold for two months should 
have about two feet of manure, as a rule. 

The manure will ordinarily heat very vigorously 
for a few daj's after it is placed in the bed. A 
soil thermometer should be thrust through the 
earth down to the manure, and the frame kept 



iarexten§ed_ 




85. Parallel runs of hotbeds with racks for holding sashes. 



tightly closed. When the temperature is passing 
below 90°, seeds of the warm plants, like tomatoes, 
may be sown, and when it passes below 80° or 70° 
the seeds of cooler plants may be sown. 

If hotbeds are to be used every year, perma- 
nent pits should be provided for them. Pits are 
made from two to three feet deep, preferably the 
former depth, and are walled up with stone or 
brick. It is important that they be given good 
drainage from below. In the summer-time, after 
the sash are stripped, the old beds may be used 



82 



GENERAL ADVICE 



for the growing of various delicate crops, like 
melons or half-hardy flowers. In this position, 
the plants can be protected in the fall. As already 
suggested, the pits should be cleaned out in the 
fall and filled with litter to facilitate the work of 
making the new bed in the winter or spring. 

Various modifications of the common type of 
hotbed will suggest themselves to the operator. 
The frames should ordinarily run in parallel rows, 




V 



86. Manure-heated forcing-house. 



so that a man walking between them can attend 
to the ventilation of two rows of sash at once. 
Fig. 85 shows a different arrangement. There are 
two parallel runs, with walks upon the outside, 
and between them are racks to receive the sash 
from the adjacent frames. The sash from the 
left-hand bed are run tO the right, and those from 
the right-hand bed are run to the left. Running 
upon racks, the operator does not need to handle 
them, and the breakage of glass is therefore less; 
but this system is little used because of the diffi- 



PIPE -HEATED HOTBEDS 



83 



culty of reaching the farther side of the bed from 
the single walk. 

If the hotbed were high enough and broad 
enough to allow a man to work inside, we should 
have a forcing -house. Such a structure is shown 
in Fig. 86, upon one side of which the manure 
and soil are already in place. These manure- 
heated houses are often very efficient, and are a 
good make -shift until such time as the party can 
afford to put in flue or pipe heat. 

Hotbeds may be heated by means of steam or 
hot water. They can 
be piped from the 
heater in a dwelling- 
house or greenhouse . 
Fig. 87 shows a hot- 
bed with two pipes, 
in the positions 7, 7. 
below the bed. The 
soil is shown at 4, 
and the plants (which, 

in this case, are vines) are growing upon a rack, 
at 6. There are doors in the end of the house, 
shown at 2,2, which may be used for ventilation 
or for admitting air underneath the beds. The 
pipes should not be surrounded by earth, but 
should run through a free air space. 

It would scarcely pay to put in a hot water or 
steam heater for the express purpose of heating 
hotbeds, for if such an expense were incurred, it 




Pipe-heated hotbed. 



84 GENERAL ADVICE 

would be better to make a forcing -house. Hot- 
beds may be heated, however, with hot air flues 
with very good results. A home-made brick fur- 
nace may be constructed in a pit at one end of 
the run and underneath a shed, and the smoke 
and hot air, instead of being carried directly up- 
wards, is carried through a slightly rising hori- 
zontal pipe which runs underneath the beds. For 
some distance from the furnace, this flue may be 
made of brick or unvitrified sewer pipe, but stove- 
pipe may be used for the greater part of the run. 
The chimney is ordinarily at the farther end of 
the run of beds. It should be high, in order to 
secure a good draft. If the run of beds is long, 
there should be a rise in the underlying pipe of at 
least one foot in twenty -five. The greater the rise 
in this pipe, the more perfect will be the draft. 
If the runs are not too long, the underlying pipe 
may return underneath the beds and enter a 
chimney directly over the back end of the fur- 
nace, and such a chimney, being warmed from the 
furnace, will ordinarilj^ have an excellent draft. 
The underlying pipe should occupj- a free space 
or pit beneath the beds, and wheuever it lies near 
to the floor of the bed or is very hot, it should be 
covered with asbestos cloth. While such flue- 
heated hotbeds may be eminently successful, it 
may nevertheless be said, as a general statement, 
that whenever such trouble and expense are incurred 
it is better to make a forcing -house. Full direc- 



FLUE -HEATED HOTBEDS 85 

tions for the making and management of forcing- 
houses may be found in Taft's "Greenhouse Con- 
struction" and in Bailey's "Forcing -Book." 

Close attention is required in the management 
of hotbeds, to insure that thej- do not become too 
hot when the sun comes out suddenly, and to give 
plenty of fresh air. Ventilation is usually effected 
by raising the sash at the upper end and letting 
it rest upon a block. Whenever the temperature 
is above freezing point, it is generally advisable 
to take the sash off part way, as shown in the 
central portions of Fig. 78, or even to strip it off 
entirely, as shown in Fig. 76. Care should be 
taken not to water the plants at nightfall, espe- 
cially in dull and cold weather, but to give them 
water in the morning, when the sun will soon 
bring the temperature up to its normal state. 

The most satisfactory material for use in hotbed 
and coldframe sash is double- thick, second-quality 
glass ; and panes which are twelve inches wide 
are ordinarily wide enough, and suffer compara- 
tively little in breakage. For coldframes, how- 
ever, various oiled papers and water -proof cloths 
may be used, especially for plants which are 
started little in advance of the opening of the 
season. When these materials are used, it is not 
necessary to have expensive sash, but rectangular 
frames are made from strips of pine seven -eighths 
inch thick and two and one -half inches wide, 
halved together at the corners and each corner 



86 GENERAL ADVICE 

reinforced by a square carriage -corner, such as is 
used by carriage -makers to secure the corners of 
buggy boxes. These corners can be bought by 
the pound at hardware stores. 

Some protection, other than the glass, must be 
given to hotbeds. They need covering on every 
cold night, and sometimes during the entire day 
in very severe weather. Very good material for 
covering the sash is matting, such as is used for 
carpeting floors. Old pieces of carpet may also 
be used. Various hotbed mattings are sold by 
dealers in gardeners' supplies. Gardeners often 
make mats of rye straw. Such mats are thick and 
durable, and are rolled up in the morning, as 
shown in Fig. 78. There are various methods of 
making these straw mats, but Fig. 88 illustrates 
one of the best. A frame is made after the man- 
ner of a saw-horse, with a double top, and tarred 
or marline twine is used for securing the strands 
of straw. It is customary to use six runs of this 
warp. Twelve spools of string are provided, six 
hanging upon either side. Some persons wind 
the cord upon two twenty -penny nails, as shown 
in the figure, these nails being held together at 
one end by wire which is secured in notches filed 
into them. The other ends of the spikes are free, 
and allow the string to be caught between them, 
thus preventing the balls from unwinding as they 
hang upon the frame. Two wisps of straight rye 
straw are secured and laid upon the frame, with 



MATS FOR HOTBEDS 87 

the butt ends outward aud the heads overlapping. 
Two opposite spools are then brought up and a 
hard knot is tied at each point. The projecting 
butts of the straw are then cut off with a hatchet, 
and the mat is allowed to drop through to receive 
the next pair of wisps. In making these mats, 




Making straw mats. 



it is essential that the rj^e contains no ripe grain; 
otherwise it attracts the mice. It is best to 
grow rye for this especial purpose, and to cut_it 
before the grain is in the milk, so that the straw 
does not need to be threshed. 

In addition to these covering's of straw or mat- 



88 GENERAL ADVICE 

ting, it is sometimes necessary to provide board 
shutters to protect the beds, especially if the 
plants are started very early in the season. These 
shutters are made of half -inch or five -eighths inch 
pine lumber, and are the same size as the sash — 
three by six feet. They may be placed upon the 
sash underneath the matting, or they may be used 
above the matting. In some cases they are used 
without any matting. 

In the growing of plants in hotbeds, every effort 
should be made to prevent the plants from grow- 
ing spindling, or becoming "drawn." To make 
stocky plants, it is necessary to give room to 
each plant, to be sure that the distance from 
the plants to the glass is not great, not to 
provide too much water in dull and cold wea- 
ther, and especially to give abundance of air. 

INSECTS AND DISEASES 

The insects and diseases which attack garden 
plants are legion ; and yet, for the most part, they 
are not very difficult to combat if one is timely 
and thorough in his operations. These difficulties 
may be divided into three great categories : the 
injuries wrought by insects ; the injuries of para- 
sitic fungi; the various types of so-called consti- 
tutional diseases, many of which are caused by 
germs or microbes. 

Insect injuries are easily recognized. The dis- 
eases caused by parasitic fungi are usually desig- 



PARASITIC FUNGI 



89 



nated by distinct marks or spots upon the leaves 
or stems, and the gradual weakening or death of 
the part ; and, in many cases, the leaves di'op 
bodil}'. For the most part, these spots upon the 
leaves or stems develop sooner or later a mildew- 
like or rusty appearance, which is due to the de- 
velopment of the spores or fruiting bodies. Fig. 
89 illustrates the ravages of one of the parasitic 




89. Work of shot-hole fungus of plum. 



fungi, the shot -hole fungus of the plum. Each 
spot upon the leaf probably represents a distinct 
attack of the fungus, and in this particular dis- 
ease these injured parts of tissue are liable to fall 
out, leaving holes in the leaf. Plum leaves which 
are attacked early in the season by this disease 
usually drop prematurely ; but sometimes the 
leaves persist, being riddled by holes at the close 
of the season. Fig. 90 is the rust of the holly- 



90 GENERAL ADVICE 

hock. In this case the pustules of the fungus 
are very definite upon the under side of the leaf, 
and each pustule, as in the case of the plum dis- 
ease, may represent a distinct attack of fungus. 
The constitutional and bacterial diseases usually 
affect the whole plant, or at least large portions of 




Hollyhock rust. Under side of leaf. 



it ; and the seat of attack is commonly not so 
much in the individual leaves as in the stems, the 
sources of food suppl}^ being thereby cut off from 
the foliage. The symptoms of this class of dis- 
eases are general weakening of plant when the dis- 
ease affects the plant as a whole or when it attacks 
large branches ; or sometimes the leaves shrivel 



ROOT -GALLS 91 

and die about the edges or in large irregular dis- 
colored spots, but without the distinct pustular 
marks of the parasitic fungi. There is a general 
tendency for the foliage upon plants affected with 
such diseases to shrivel and to hang upon the stem 
for a time. One of the best illustrations of this 
type of disease is the pear-blight. 

Still another class of diseases is characterized by 
galls upon the roots. The galls upon greenhouse 
plants, and upon outdoor plants in the southern 
states, are usually caused by a true worm or 
nematode, and the onl}- complete remed}' for these 
is to freeze the soil. In glass houses there need 
be no injury from these galls if the gardener is 
careful to use no soil except that which has been 
thoroughly frozen. Nematode galls are not known 
to occur permanently in the northern states where 
the ground freezes deep. There is another type of 
root- gall, however, illustrated in Fig. 91, which 
is coming to be common throughout the northern 
states, and the cause of which is unknown. It is 
probable that this disease propagates itself in the 
stock, even if the galls are all removed before the 
plant is set, although this point is not yet 
thoroughly determined. It is supposed by many 
careful observers, also, that land in which root- 
galls have been produced is unsafe for the setting 
of plants which are subject to the injury. The 
best advice which can now be given in regard to 
this difficulty is to set no plants which have galls 





91. Root-gall on raspberry. 



92. Canker-wor 



111. 



INSECT INJURIES 



93 



on them, and to devote land in which galls have 
been found to some annual crop for three or four 

years, until the 
germs of the dis- 
ease may be sup- 




93. Box for protecting plants 
from insects. 




94. Protecting from 
cut-worms. 



, posed to be eliminated. These galls are common 
upon woody plants, especially raspberries and 
blackberries and the fruit trees. 

Of obvious insect injuries, there are two general 
types, — those wrought by insects which bite or 
chew their food, as the ordinary beetles and 
worms, and those wrought hj insects which punc- 
ture the surface of the plant and derive their food 
by suction, as scale-insects and plant-lice. The 
canker-worm (Fig. 92) is a notable example of 
the former class, and all these insects are readily 
dispatched by the application of poison to the 
foliage. It is apparent, however, that insects 
which suck the juice of the plant are not poisoned 



94 GENERAL ADVICE 

by any liquid which may be applied to the surface. 
They may be killed by various materials which act 
upon them externally, as the soap washes, kero- 
sene emulsions, and the like. 

The first and best means of averting trouble 
from insects and fungi is to prevent their attacks. 
It is often advisable to plant only those species or 
varieties which are least subject to serious injury. 
If a garden is kept clean of rubbish and all places 
in which the insects can hibernate and the fungi 
can propagate, verj' much will be accomplished 
towards keeping the plantation in health. All 
fallen leaves from plants which have been attacked 
by fungi should be raked up and burned, and in 
the fall all diseased wood should be cut out and 
destroj-ed. In the case of small plants which are 
attacked by large insects, hand-picking is the most 
etficient means of riddance. There are also va- 
rious ways of protecting the plants from the 
attacks of insects. One of the best is to cover the 
plants with fine mosquito-netting or to grow them 
in hand frames, or to use a wire -covered box like 
that shown in Fig. 93. In growing plants under 
such covers, care must be taken that the plants are 
not kept too close or confined ; and in cases in 
which the insects hibernate in the soil, these boxes, 
by keeping the soil warm, may cause the insects to 
hatch all the sooner. In most cases, however, these 
covers are very efficient, especially for keeping the 
striped bugs off young plants of melons and 



CUT -WORMS 



95 



cucumbers. Cut -worms may be kept away from 
plants by placing sheets of tin or of heavy glazed 
paper about the stem of the plant, as shown in 
Fig. 94. Climbing cut- worms are kept off young 




95. Protecting trees 
from cut-worms. 



96. Showing methods of cut- 
ting paper to protect plants from 
maggots. 



trees by the means as shown in Fig. 95; or a roll 
of cotton may be placed about the trunk of the 
tree, a string being tied upon the lower edge of 
the roll and the upper edge of the cotton turned 
down like the top of a boot. The insects cannot 
crawl over this obstruction. 



96 GENERAL ADVICE 

The maggots which attack the roots of cab- 
bages and cauliflowers may be kept from the 
plant by pieces of tarred paper, which are placed 
close about the stem upon the surface of the 
ground. Fig. 96 illustrates a hexagon of paper, 
and also shows a tool which is used for cutting 
it. This means of preventing the attacks of the 
cabbage maggot is described in detail by Pro- 
fessor Goff : 

"The cards are cut in a hexagonal form, in 
order to better economize the material, and a 
thinner grade of tarred paper than the ordinary 
roofing felt is used, as it is not only cheaper, 
but being more flexible, the cards made from 
it are more readily placed about the plant with- 
out being torn. The blade of the tool, which 
should be made by an expert blacksmith, is 
formed from a band of steel, bent in the form 
of a half hexagon, and then taking an acute 
angle, reaches nearly to the center, as shown in 
Fig. 96. The part making the star- shaped cut 
is formed from a separate piece of steel, so at- 
tached to the handle as to make a close joint 
with the blade. The latter is beveled from the 
outside all around, so that by removing the part 
making the star -shaped cut, the edge may be 
ground on a grindstone. It is important that 
the angles in the blade be made perfect, and 
that its outline represents an exact half hexagon. 
To use the tool, place the tarred paper on the 



CABBAGE MAGGOTS 97 

end of a section of a log or piece of timber and 
first cut the lower edge into notches, as indi- 
cated at a, Fig. 96, using onlj- one angle of the 
tool. Then commence at the left side, and place 
the blade as indicated bj^ the dotted lines, and 
strike at the end of the handle with a light mal- 
let, and a complete card is made. Continue in 
this manner across the paper. The first cut of 
every alternate course will make an imperfect 
card, and the last cut in any course may be 
imperfect, but the other cuts will make perfect 
cards if the tool is correctly made, and properly 
used. The cards should be placed about the 
plants at the time of transplanting. To place 
the card bend it slightly, to open the slit, then 
slip it on to the center, the stem entering the 
slit, after which spread the card out flat, and 
press the points formed by the star- shaped cut 
snugly around the stem." 

An efficient means of destroying insects in 
glass houses is by fumigating with various kinds 
of smoke or vapors. The best material to use 
for general purposes is some form of tobacco or 
tobacco compounds. The old method of fumi- 
gating with tobacco is to slowly burn slightly 
dampened tobacco stems in a kettle or scuttle, 
allowing the house to be filled with the pungent 
smoke. Lately, however, a fluid extract of to- 
bacco has been brought into use, which is evap- 
orated in the house by dropping red-hot iron into 



98 



GENERAL ADVICE 



the liquid, and which is very destructive to insect 
life while it does not injure the plants. Fumi- 
gation may be practiced even in hotbeds and cold- 
frames, as shown in Fig. 97, which illustrates a 




97. Fumigating a hotbed. 

fumigater with the outlet pipe running into the 
frame and ^ith di-aft supplied by means of a 
hand bellows. 

The most efficient means of destroying insects 
and fungi, however, is by the use of various 
sprays. The two general types of insecticides 
have already been mentioned — those which kill by 
poisoning, and those which kill by destroying the 
body of the insect. Of the former, there are 
three materials in common use — Paris green, 
London purple and hellebore.* Of the latter, 



*Paris Green.— Paris green, 1 pound; water, 200-300 gallons. If this 
mixture is to be used upon peach trees, 1 pound of quicklime should be 
added. Repeated applications will injui*e most foliage, unless lime is 
added. Paris green and Bordeaux mixture can be applied together with 
perfect safety. Use at the rate of 4 ounces of the arsenites to 50 gallons 
of the mixture. The action of neither is weakened, and the Paris green 
loses all caustic properties. For insects which chew. 

London Purple.— This is used in the same proportion as Paris green, 
but as it is more caustic it should he applied with two or three times its 
weight of lime, or with the Bordeaux mixture. The composition of Lon- 



SPRAYING 99 

the kerosene emulsion* is the most generally used. 
Sprays for fungi depend for their efficiency upon 
some form of copper or sulfur, or both. For 
surface mildews, as cucumber mildew, dusting 
flowers of sulfur upon the foliage is ample pro- 
tection. In most cases, however, it is necessary 
to apply the materials in liquid form, because 
they can be more thoroughly and economically 
distributed, and they adhere to the foliage better. 
The best general fungicide is the Bordeaux mix- 
ture, t It is generally, however, not advisable to 



don purple is exceedingly variable, and unless good reasons exist for sup- 
posing that it contains as much arsenic as 'Paris green, use the latter 
poison. Do not use London purple on peach or plum trees unless con- 
siderable lime is added. For insects which chew. 

Hellebore.— Fresh white hellebore, 1 ounce; water, 3 gallons. Apply 
when thoroughly mixed. Tliis poison is not so energetic as the arsenites, 
and may be used a short time before the sprayed portions are harvested. 
For insects which chew. 

*Kerosene Emulsion. — Hard soap, K pound; boiling water, 1 gallon; 
kerosene, 2 gallons. Dissolve the soap in the water, add the kerosene, 
and churn with a pump for 5 to 10 minutes. Dilute 10 to 25 times before 
applying. Use strong emulsion, diluted four times in winter, for all 
scale insects. For insects which suck, as plant-lice, mealy bugs, red 
spider, thrips, bark-lice or scale. Cabbage-worms, currant-worms, 
and all insects which have soft bodies, can also be successfully treated. 

fBORDEAUX Mixture.— Copper sulfate, 6 pounds; quicklime, 4 
pounds; water, 40 to 50 gallons. Dissolve the copper sulfate by put- 
ting it in a bag of coarse cloth and hanging this in a vessel holding at 
least four gallons, so that it is just covered by the water. Use an earthen 
or wooden vessel. Slake the lime in an equal amount of water. Then 
mix the two and add enough water to make 40 gallons. It is then 
ready for immediate tise, but will keep for some time. If the mixture is 
to be used on peach foliage, it is advisable to add an extra pound of lime 
to the above formula. When applied to such plants as carnations or 
cabbages, it will adhere better if a pound of hard soap is dissolved in 
hot water and added to the mixture. For rots, molds, mildews, and 
all fungous diseases. 



100 GENERAL ADVICE 

use the Bordeaux mixture upon ornamental plants 
because it discolors the foliage and makes th( 
plants look very untidy. In such cases it is bes 
to use the ammoniacal copper solution,* whicl 
leaves no stain upon the plant. In all spray in < 
operations, it is especially important that the ap 
plications be made the very moment the insect o 
disease is discovered, or in the case of fungou 
diseases, if one is expecting- an attack, it is we] 
to make an application of Bordeaux mixture evei 
before the disease appears. When the fungu 
once gets inside the plant tissue it is almost im 
possible to destroy it, inasmuch as fungicides ac 
upon these deep-seated fungi very largely by pre 
venting their fruiting and their further spread o: 
the surface of the leaf. For ordinary conditions 
from two to four sprayings are necessarj' to dis 
patch the enemy. 

Persons who desire to post themselves thoi 
oughly on spraying should procure Lodeman' 
"Spraying of Plants," and then consult the recen 
bulletins of the experiment stations. Spraying i 
relation to fruit -culture is discussed at som 
length in "Principles of Fruit- Growing." 

There are many kinds of machines and device 
for the application of sprays to plants. Fc 

*Ammoniacal Copper Carbonate.— Copper carbonate, 1 ounce; ai 
monia, 1 volume 26° Beaume, % volumes water (euougli to dissor 
the copper) ; water, 9 gallons. The copper carbonate is best dissolved : 
large bottles, where it will keep indefinitely, and it should be diluted wil 
water as required. For the same purposes as Bordeaux mixture. 



SPRAYING PUMPS 



101 



houses and a few individual specimens, the spray 
may be applied with a whisk, or with a common 
garden syringe. If one has fifty or a hundred 
plants to treat, however, it is best to have some 
kind of bucket pump like those shown in Fig. 98. 
Upon a lawn or in a small garden, a tank upon 
wheels (Figs. 99, 100, 101) is handy and efficient. 
In such cases, or even for larger areas, some of 
the knapsack pumps (Fig. 102) are very desirable. 
These machines are always serviceable, because the 
operator stands so near to his work ; but they 
carry a comparativelj" small amount of liquid and 
do not throw it rapidly, and they are, therefore, 
expensive when much work is to be done. Yet, 
in ordinary home 
grounds, the knap- 
sack pump is 




Bucket pumps 



A handy garden sprayer. 



one of the most efficient and practicable of all the 
spraying devices. For large areas, as for orchards 
and fields, a barrel pump mounted upon a wagon 



102 



GENERAL ADVICE 



or a stone -boat is best. Common types of barrel 
pumps are shown in Fig. 103. There are many 
patterns of spraying machines, and the intending 




100. Barrow outfit. 



purchaser should send for catalogues to the various 
manufacturers. The addresses maj^ be found in 
the advertising pages of rural papers. 

As to nozzles for spraying, it may be said that 
there is no one pattern which is best for all pur- 
poses. For work at short range, some of the 
nozzles of the Cyclone type, as shown in Fig. 104, 
are to be recommended; but for longer range and 
for high trees, and especially for barrel pumps, a 
nozzle which throws more liquid is desirable. One 
of the best of these is shown in Fig. 105, but 
nearly every manufacturer of pumps has some 



TREE GUARDS 103 

particular type of nozzle which he sells with his 
machinery. 

PROTECTING PLANTS FROM ANIMALS 

Along roadsides and other exposed places it is 
often necessary to protect newly set trees from 
horses and the encroachment of vehicles. There 
are various kinds of tree guards. The best types 
are those which are more or less open, so as to 
allow the free passage of air, and which are far 
enough removed from the body of the tree that 
the trunk may expand without difficult3\ If the 
tree guards are yqyj tight they may shade the 
trunk so much that the tree may suffer when the 
guard is removed. It 
is important that the 
guard does not fill with 
litter in which insects 
may harbor. As soon 
as the tree is old enough 
to escape injury, the 
guards should be re- 
moved. A very good 
guard, made of laths 
held together with three 
strips of band-iron, and ^^i- ^^^^^^^^ ^^''^^ ^"*^*- 
secured to iron posts, is shown in Fig. 106. Fig. 
107 shows a guard made by winding fencing 
wire upon three posts or stakes. When there is 
likely to be danger from too great shading of 




104 



iGENERAL ADVICE 



the trunk, this latter form of guard is one of the 
best. 

Of course hitching posts should be provided, 
wherever horses are to stand, to obviate the temp- 




102. Knapsack pumps. — 1, Galloway knapsack ; 2, Garfield ; 

3, Deming kerosene emulsion knapsack ; 4, Eclipse ; 

5, Excelsior. 

tation of hitching to trees. Fig. 108, however, 
shows a very good device when a hitching post is 
not wanted. A strong stick, four or five feet 
long, is secured to the tree by a staple and at the 
lower end of the stick is a short chain with a snap 



MICE AND RABBITS 



105 



in the end. The snap is secured to the bridle, and 
the horse is not able to reach the tree. 

Trees and bushes are often seriously injured by 
the gnawing" of mice and rabbits. The best pre- 




103. Barrel outfits.— 

1, Empire ; 2, Eclipse ; 

3, Pomona. 



ventive is not to have the vermin. If there are 
no places in which rabbits and mice can burrow 
and breed, there will be little difficulty. At the 
approach of winter, if mice are feared, the dry 
litter should be removed from about the bases of 
the trees, or it should be packed down very firm, 
so that the mice cannot nest in it. If the rodents 



106 



GENERAL ADVICE 



are very abundant, it may be advisable to wrap 
fine wire netting about the base of the tree. 
Various washes may be put upon the tree to keep 
rabbits away, a number of which may be found 
in the "Horticulturist's Rule -Book." A boy who 
is fond of trapping or hunting will ordinarily 
solve the rabbit difficulty. Rags tied upon sticks 
which are placed at intervals about the plantation 
will often frighten rabbits away. 

Trees which are girdled by mice should be 
wrapped up as soon as discovered, so that the 




104. Cyclone and Vermorel nozzles. 

wood shall not become too dry. When warm 
weather approaches, shave off the edges of the 
girdle so that the healing tissue may grow freely, 
smear the whole surface with grafting -wax, or 
with clay, and bind the whole wound with strong 
cloths. Even though the tree is completely girdled 
for a distance of three or four inches, it may gen- 
erally be saved by this treatment, unless the in- 
jury extends into the wood. The sap from the 
roots rises through the soft wood and not between 
the bark and the wood, as commonly supposed. 
When this sap has reached the foliage, it is elabo- 
rated and changed into plant -food, and this food 




105. McGowen 
nozzle. 



106. Lath tree 
guard. 



107. Wire-and- 
post tree guard. 



108 



GENERAL ADVICE 



is distributed throughout the plant, the path of 
transfer being in the inner layers of bark. This 
food material, being distributed back to the girdle, 
will generally heal over the wound if the wood is 
not allowed to become dry. In some cases, how- 
ever, it is necessary to join the bark above and 




7 



108. Safe method of hitching- 
a horse to a tree. 



109. Common stake 
label. 



below the girdle by means of cions, which are 
whittled to a wedge -shape on either end, and 
inserted underneath the two edges of the bark. 
The ends of the cions and the edges of the wound 
are held by a bandage of cloth, and the whole 
work is protected by melted grafting -wax poured 
upon it.* 



*A good grafting-wax is made as follows : Into a kettle place one part 
by weight of tallow, two parts of beeswax, four parts of rosin. When 
completely melted, pour into a tub or pail of cold water, then work it with 
the hands (which should be greased) until it develops a grain and 
becomes the color of taffy candy. The whole question of the propagation 
of plants is discussed in "The Nursery-Book." 



LABELS AND MAPS 



109 



KEEPING RECORDS OF THE PLANTATION 

If one has a large and valuable collection of 
fruit or ornamental plants, it is desirable that he 
have some permanent record of them. The most 
satisfactory method is to label the plants, and 
then to make a chart or map upon which the 
various plants are indicated in their proper posi- 

■!3 







110. A good stake label. 



111. Metal stake label. 



tions. The labels are always liable to be lost and 
to become illegible, and they are often mis- 
placed by careless workmen or mischievous boys. 
For vegetables, annuals and other temporary 
plants, the best labels are simple stakes, like that 
shown in Fig. 109. Garden stakes may be bought 
of label manufacturers, a foot long, an inch wide 
and three -eighths inch thick, for from three to five 



no 



GENERAL ADVICE 



dollars a thousand. These take a soft pencil very 
readily, and if the labels are pulled up in the fall, 
and stored in a dry place, they will last two 





112. Zinc tallies. 



113. Common zinc tally, 



or three years. For more permanent herba- 
ceous plants, as rhubarb and asparagus, or even 
for bushes, a stake which is sawed from clear 
pine or cypress, eighteen inches long, three inches 
wide and an inch or more thick, affords a most 
excellent label. The lower end of the stake is 
sawed to a point, and is dipped in coal tar or 
creosote, or other preservative. The top of the 
stake is painted white, and the legend is written 
with a large and soft pencil. When the writ- 
ing becomes illegible or the stake is needed for 
other plants, a shaving is taken off the face of 
the label with a plane, a fresh coat of paint 
added, and the label is as good as ever. These 
labels are strong enough to withstand shocks from 
whiffletrees and tools, and should last ten years. 



LABELS 



111 



Whenever a legend is written with a lead pencil, 
it is advisable to use the pencil when the paint 
(which should be white lead) is still fresh or soft. 
Fig. 110 shows a very good device for preserving 
the writing upon the face of the label. A block 
of wood is secured to the label by means of a 
screw, covering the legend completely and pro- 
tecting it from the weather. 

If more ornamental stake labels are desired, 
there are various types which can be bought in 
the market, or one can be made after the fashion 
of Fig. 111. This is a zinc plate, which can be 




114. Nurseryman's wooden 
label. 



115. 



Cornell tree 
label. 



painted black and the name written with white 
paint. Many persons, however, prefer to paint 
the zinc white, and write or stamp the label with 



112 GENERAL ADVICE 

black ink or black type. Two strong wire legs 
are soldered to the label, and these prevent it 
from turning around. These labels are, of course, 
much more expensive than the ordinary stake 
labels, and are usually not so satisfactory. 

For labeling trees, various kinds of zinc tallies 
are in common use, as shown in Figs. 112 and 
113. Fresh zinc takes a lead pencil readil}^, and 
the writing often becomes more legible as it be- 
comes older, and it will generally last three or 
four years. These labels are attached either by 
wires, as a, b, Fig. 112, or they are wound about 
the limb as shown in c, d and e, in Fig. 112. The 
type of zinc label most in use is a simple strip of 
zinc, as shown in Fig. 113, wrapped about the 
limb. The metal is so flexible that it expands 
readily with the growth of the limb. While these 
zinc labels are durable, they are very inconspicuous 
because of th^ir neutral color, and it is often 
difficult to find them in dense masses of foliage. 
The common wooden label of the nurserymen 
(Fig. 114) is perhaps as useful as any for general 
purposes. If the label has had a light coat of 
thin white lead, and the legend has been made 
with a soft lead pencil, the writing should be 
legible for four or five years. Fig. 115 shows 
another type of label which is more durable, 
since the wire is stiff and large, and is secured 
around the limb by means of pincers. The large 
loop allows the limb to expand, and the stiff wire 



TREE LABELS 



113 



prevents the misplacing of the label by winds and 
workmen. The tally itself is what is known as 
the package label of the nurserymen, being six 
inches long, one and one -fourth inches wide, and 
costing (painted) less than one and one -half dol- 
lars a thousand. The legend is made with a lead 





116. Serviceable tree label. 



117. Zinc tree label. 



pencil when the paint is fresh, and sometimes the 
label is dipped in thin white lead after the writing 
is made, so that the paint covers the writing with 
a very thin protecting coat. A similar label is 
shown in Fig. 116, which has a large wire loop, 
with a coil to allow the expansion of the limb. 



114 



GENERAL ADVICE 



The tallies of this type of label are often made 
of glass or porcelain with the name indelibly 
printed in them. Fig. 117 shows a zinc tally, 
which is secured to the tree by means of a sharp 
and pointed wire which is driven into the wood. 
Some prefer to have two arms to this wire, driv- 
ing one point upon either side of the tree. If 
galvanized wire is used, these labels will last for 
many years. 

It is very important, when adjusting labels to 
trees, to be sure that the wire is not twisted tight 
against the wood. Fig. 118 shows 
the injury which is likely to result 
from label wires. When a tree is 
constricted or girdled, it is very 
liable to be broken off by winds. 
It should be a rule to attach the 
label to a limb of minor impor- 
tance, so that if the wire should 
injure the part, the loss will not 
When the label, Fig. 
114, is applied, only the tips of the 
wire should be twisted together, leaving a large 
loop for the expansion of the limb. 




118. Stem 
girdled by the be SCriouS. 
label wire. 



ENRICHING TEE LAND. 



There are two coordinate problems concerned in 
the fertilizing of the land: the direct addition of 
plant -food, and the improvement of the physical 
texture of the soil. The latter ofi&ce is often the 



GREEN MANURES 115 

more important. Lands which, on the one hand, 
are very hard and solid, with a tendency to bake, 
and, upon the other, those which are loose and 
leachy, are very greatly benefited by the addition 
of organic matter. When this organic matter, as 
animal and plant remains, decays and becomes 
thoroughly incorporated with the soil, it forms 
what is called humus. The addition of this 
humus to the land makes it mellow, friable, 
retentive of moisture, and promotes the general 
chemical activities of the soil. It also puts the 
soil in the best physical condition for the comfort 
and well-being of the plants. Very many of the 
lands which are said to be exhausted of plant- 
food still contain enough potash, phosphoric acid 
and lime, and other fertilizing elements, to raise 
good crops ; but they have been greatly injured 
in their physical texture by long -continued crop- 
ping, injudicious tillage, and the withholding of 
vegetable matter. A part of the marked results 
which are obtained from the plowing under of 
clover is due to the mere addition of vegetable 
matter to the soil, wholly aside from the addition 
of fertilizing material; and this is emphatically 
true of clover because its deep -growing roots 
penetrate and break up the subsoil. Muck and 
leaf -mold are often very useful in ameliorating 
either very hard or very loose lands. Excellent 
humous material may be constantly at hand if 
the leaves, garden refuse and some of the manure 



116 GENERAL ADVICE 

be piled and composted. If the pile is turned 
several times a year, the material becomes fine and 
uniform in texture. 

The various questions associated with the fer- 
tilizing of the land are too large to be considered 
in detail here. Persons who desire to familiarize 
themselves with the subject should consult Rob- 
erts' "Fertility of the Land" and King's "Soil:" 
and if it is desired to make application of the 
knowledge directly to the growing of fruit, they 
should consult Bailey's "Principles of Fruit- 
Gr owing." 

It may be said, however, that, as a rule, most 
lands contain all the elements of plant -food in 
sufficient quantities except potash, phosphoric acid 
and nitrogen. In many cases, lime is very bene- 
ficial to land, usually because it corrects acidity 
of the soil and has a mechanical effect in pulver- 
izing and flocculating clay and in cementing sands, 
rather than in the direct addition of plant -food. 
The chief sources of commercial potash are mu- 
riate of potash, sulfate of potash and wood ashes. 
For general purposes, the muriate of potash is 
now recommended, because it is comparatively 
cheap and the composition is uniform. A normal 
application of muriate of potash is from two 
hundred to three [hundred pounds to the acre ; but 
on some garden lands, where the greatest results 
are demanded, sometimes as much as twice this 
application may be made. Phosphoric acid is got 



FERTILIZERS 117 

in dissolved South Carolina and Florida rock and 
in various bone preparations. These materials 
are applied at the rate of two hundred to four 
hundred pounds to the acre. Commercial nitro- 
gen is chiefly obtained in the form of animal ref- 
use, as blood and tankage, and in nitrate of soda. 
It is more likely to be lost by leaching through 
the land than the mineral substances are, espe- 
cially if the land lacks humus. Nitrate of soda is 
very soluble, and should be applied in small quan- 
tities at intervals. Nitrogen, being the element 
which is mostly conducive to vegetative growth, 
tends to delay the season of maturity if applied 
late in the season. One hundred to three hundred 
pounds of nitrate of soda may be applied to the 
acre, but it is ordinarily better to make two or 
three applications at intervals of three to six 
weeks. Fertilizing materials may be applied either 
in fall or spring; but in the case of nitrate of 
soda, it is usually better not to apply in the fall 
unless the land has plenty of humus to prevent 
leaching, or on plants which start very early in 
the spring. The material is sown broadcast, or it 
may be scattered lightly in furrows underneath the 
seeds, and then covered with dirt. If sown broad- 
cast, it may be applied either after the seeds are 
sown or before. It is usually better to apply it 
before, for although the rains carry it down, never- 
theless the upward movement of water during the 
dry weather of the summer tends to bring it 



118 GENERAL ADVICE 

back to the surface. It is important that large 
lumps of fertilizer, especially muriate of potash 
and nitrate of soda, do not fall near the crowns 
of the plants; otherwise the plants may be seri- 
ously injured. It is a general principle, also, that 
it is better to apply sparingly of fertilizers and 
liberally of tillage. The tendency is to make fer- 
tilizers do penance for the sins of neglect, but the 
results do not often meet one's expectations. 

If one has only a small garden or a home yard, 
it will ordinarily not pay him to buy the chemicals 
separately, as recommended above, but he can buy 
some complete fertilizer which is sold under a 
trademark or brand, and which has a guaranteed 
analysis. If one is raising plants chiefly for their 
foliage, as rhubarb and ornamental bushes, he 
should select a fertilizer comparatively rich in 
nitrogen ; but if he desires chiefly fruit and 
flowers, the mineral elements, as potash, and 
phosphoric acid, should be high. If one uses the 
chemicals, it is not necessary that they be mixed 
before application; in fact, it is usually better 
not to mix them, because some plants and some 
soils need more of one element than of another. 
Just what materials, and how much, different soils 
and plants require, must be determined by the 
grower himself by observation and experiment, 
but the above hints may suggest the problems to 
be considered. 

Muriate of potash costs forty dollars and up- 



FERTILIZERS 119 

wards per ton, sulfate about forty -eight dollars, 
dissolved boneblack about twenty -four dollars, 
ground bone about thirty dollars, kainit about 
thirteen dollars, and nitrate of soda about two and 
one-fourth cents per pound. These prices vary, of 
course, with the composition or mechanical condi- 
tion of the materials. The average composition 
of unleached wood ashes in the market is about 
as follows: Potash, 5.25 per cent; phosphoric acid, 
1.70 per cent; lime, 34 per cent; magnesia, 3.40 
per cent. The average composition of kainit is 
13.54 per cent potash, 1.15 per cent lime. The 
composition of sylvinit (which is said to be known 
as sulfate of potash in some quarters) is about 
16 per cent of potash, in the form of both 
muriate and sulfate, mostly the former. The 
fact that the soil itself is the greatest storehouse 
of plant -food is shown by the following average 
of thirty -five analyses of the total content of the 
first eight inches of surface soils, per acre: 3,521 
pounds of nitrogen, 4,400 pounds of phosphoric 
acid, 19,836 pounds of potash. Much of this is 
unavailable, but the good tillage and green manur- 
ing which have been recommended tend to un- 
lock it. 



Section II 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

One cannot expect satisfaction in the planting 
and developing of a home area unless he has a 
definite conception of what is to be done. This 
necessarily follows, since the pleasure which one 
derives from any enterprise depends chiefly upon 
the definiteness of his ideals and upon his ability 
to develop them. The home-maker should de- 
velop his plan before he attempts to develop his 
place. He should determine the locations of the 
leading features of the place, and the relative im- 
portance to be given to the various parts of it, — 
as of the landscape parts, the ornamental areas, 
the vegetable garden and the fruit plantations. 
The details of the planting, however, may be de- 
termined as the place develops : it is only the 
structural features and purposes of the place 
which need to be determined beforehand. The 
incidental modifications which can be made in the 
planting from time to time keep the interest alive, 
and allow the planter to gratify his desire to ex- 
periment with new plants and new methods. The 
following discussions may aid the enquirer in for- 
mulating a conception of a home plot. If it 

(120) 



THE LANDSCAPE PICTURE 121 

should happen that any person has read the 
author's bulletins on " Suggestions for the Plant- 
ing of Shrubbery," " China Asters," and " Culti- 
vated Polars," he may recognize some of the 
sentences in the following pages. 

TEE PICTURE IN THE LANDSCAPE 

The trouble with home grounds is not so much 
that there is too little planting of trees and shrubs 
as that this planting is meaningless. Every yard 
should be a picture. That is, the area should be 
set off from every other area, and it should have 
such a character that the observer catches its 
entire effect and purpose without stopping to 
analyze its parts. The yard should be one thing, 
one area, with every feature contributing its part 
to one strong and homogeneous effect. 

These remarks will become concrete if the 
reader turns his eye to Figs 119 and 120. The 
former represents the common type of planting 
of front yards. The bushes and trees are scat- 
tered promiscuously over the area. Such a yard 
has no purpose, no central idea. It shows plainly 
that the planter had no constructive conception, 
no grasp of any design, and no appreciation of 
the fundamental elements of the beauty of land- 
scape. Its only merit is the fact that trees and 
shrubs have been planted ; and this, to most 
minds, comprises the essence and sum of the orna- 



122 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

mentatiou of grounds. Every tree and bush is 
an individual, alone, unattended, disconnected 



^"B 



^ '*<ii a # ^ 

119. The common or nursery way of planting. 

from its environments, and therefore meaningless. 
Such a yard is only a nurseiy . 

The other plan (Fig. 120) is a picture. The 
eye catches its meaning at once. The central idea 
is the residence, with a warm and open greensward 
in front of it. The same trees and bushes which 
were scattered haphazard over Fig. 119 are massed 
into a framework to give effectiveness to the pic- 
ture of home and comfort. This style of planting 
makes a landscape, even though the area be no 
larger that a parlor. The other style is simply a 
collection of curious plants. The one has an 
instant and abiding pictorial effect, which is rest- 
ful and satisfying : the observer exclaims, " What 
a beautiful home this is !" The other piques one's 
curiosity, obscures the residence, divides and dis- 
tracts the attention : the observer exclaims, "What 
excellent lilac bushes are these ! " 

The following sketch, which the author made 



THE PICTURE IN THE LANDSCAPE 123 

in a periodical (" Science", Nov. 17, 1893) as a 
comment upon a discussion of the ' ' picture in the 
landscape", will still further explain the subject 
under consideration : 

" The inquiry in a recent issue, into the causes 
of the unlike impressions which one receives from 
a given landscape and from a painting of it, 
seems to me to explain the subject admirably. 
The correspondent supposes that the reason why 
the picture appeals to us more than the land- 
scape does is because the picture is condensed, and 
the mind becomes acquainted with its entire pur- 
pose at once, while the landscape is so broad that 
the individual objects at first fix the attention, and 
it is only b}^ a process of synthesis that the unity 
of the landscape finally becomes apparent. This 
is admirably illustrated in photographs. One of 
the first surprises which I experienced when I be- 





120. The proper or pictorial type of planting. 

gan the use of the camera was the discovery that 
very tame scenes become interesting and often 



124 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

eveu spirited in the photograph. But there is 
something more than mere condensation in this 
vitalizing and beautifying effect of the photograph 
or the painting. Individual objects are so much 
reduced that they no longer appeal to us as 
distinct subjects, and however uncouth they may 
be in the reality, they make no impression in the 
picture. The thin and sere sward may appear 
rather like a closely shaven lawn or a new-mown 
meadow. And again, the picture sets a limit to 
the scene ; it frames it, and thereby cuts off all 
extraneous and confusing or irrelevant landscapes. 
"All these remarks are enforced in the gesthe- 
tics of landscape gardening. It is the artist's one 
desire to make pictures in the landscape. This 
is done in two ways, — by the form of plantations 
and by the use of vistas. He will throw his plan- 
tations into such positions that open and yet more 
or less conJBned areas of greensward are presented 
to the observer at various points. This glade-like 
opening is nearly or quite devoid of small or in- 
dividual objects, which always destroy the unity 
of such areas and are meaningless in them- 
selves. The two sketches illustrate my meaning. 
The first one (Fig. 119) is a fair diagram of the 
average front-yard. It is full of individual trees 
and bushes, or groups, and the eye is carried from 
object to object, while the entire yard makes no 
quick appeal to the mind. One is pleased only 
with the kinds of plants which he sees. The 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PICTURE 125 

second sketch (Fig. 120) presents a definite area 
at once to the observer, and the individual plants 
are of minor importance. Here is a landscape — 
a picture ; there is a nursery. 

"A vista is a narrow opening or view between 
plantations to a distant landscape. It cuts up the 
broad horizon into portions which are readily cog- 
nizable. It frames portions of the country-side. 
The verdurous sides of the planting are the sides 
of the frame ; the foreground is the bottom, and 
the sky is the top." 

If the reader catches the full meaning of these 
contrasts, he has acquired the first and most im- 
portant conception in landscape gardening. The 
conception will grow upon him day by day ; and 
if he is of an observing turn of mind, he will find 
that this simple lesson will revolutionize his habit 
of thought respecting the planting of grounds and 
the beauty of landscapes. He will see that a bush 
or flower-bed which is no part of any general 
purpose or design — that is, which does not con- 
tribute to the making of a picture — might better 
never have been planted. For myself, I had 
rather have a bare and open pasture than such a 
yard as that shown in Fig. 119, even though it 
contained the choicest plants of every land. The 
pasture would at least be plain and restful and 
unpretentious. It would be nature -like and 
sweet. But the yard would be full of effort 
and fidget. 







a 



o 

si 

Si 



<u 
73 



a 

el 

a> 
> 



THE MASS VS. THE SPECIMEN 



127 



Reduced to a single expression, all this means 
that the greatest artistic value in planting lies in 
the effect of the mass, and not in the individual 
plant. A mass has the greater value because it 
presents a much greater range and variety of 
forms, colors, shades and textures, because it has 
sufficient extent or dimensions to add structural 
character to a place, and because its features are 
so continuous and so well blended that the mind 
is not distracted bs^ incidental and irrelevant 




^^^j^.'f!m,^j^' 



122. A nature-planted tangle. 

ideas. A couple of pictures will admirably illus- 
trate all this. Figs. 121, 122 are pictures of nat- 
ural copses. The former stretches across a vale, 
and makes a lawui of the bit of meadow which 
lies in front of it. The landscape has become 
so small and so well defined hy this bank of 
verdure that it has a familiar and personal feel- 
ing. The great, bare, open meadows are too ill- 



128 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

defined and too extended to give any domestic 
air ; but here is a portion of the meadow set off 
into an area which one can compass with his 
affections. 

These masses in Figs. 121, 122, have their 
own intrinsic merits, as well as their office in de- 
fining a bit of nature. One is attracted by the 
carelessness of arrangement, the irregularity of 
sky-line, the bold bays and promontories, and 
the infinite play of light and shade. The ob- 
server is interested in each because it has charac- 
ter, or features which no other mass in all the 
world possesses. He knows that the birds build 
their nests in the tangle, and the rabbits find it 
a happy covert. 

Now let the reader turn to Fig. 123, which is 
a picture of an "improved" city yard. Here 
there is no structural strength to the planting, 
no defining of the area, no continuous flow of 
the form and color. Every bush is what ever}^ 
other one is or may be, and there are hundreds 
like them in the same town. The birds shun 
them. Only the bugs find any happiness in 
them. The place has no fundamental design or 
idea, no lawn upon which a picture can be con- 
structed. 

The motive which shears the trees also razes 
the copse, in order that the gardener or " im- 
prover" may show his art. Compare Figs. 124 
and 125. Many persons seem to fear that they 



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130 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



will never be known to the world unless they ex- 
pend a great amount of muscle or do something 




124. A rill and a picture. 



emphatic or spectacular ; and their fears are 
usually well founded. 

If a landscape is a picture, it must have a 



IMPORTANCE OP THE SWARD 



131 



canvas. This canvas is the greensward. Upon 
this, the artist paints with tree and bush and 
flower, as the painter does ui^on his canvas with 
brush and pigments. The opportunity for artistic 
composition and design is nowhere so great as 
in the landscape garden, because no other art has 






iiir-' ■ ' •'mmii'tllii, iiiii'- 







^»*« 
-^1 



c 



The same rill "improved." Prom an actual example. 



such a limitless field for the expression of its 
emotions. It is not strange, if this be true, that 
there have been few great landscape gardeners, 
and that, falling short of art, the landscape gar- 



132 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



dener too often works in the sphere of the arti- 
san. There can be no rules for landscape garden- 
ing, any more than there can be for painting or 
sculpture. The operator may be taught how to 
hold the brush or strike the chisel or plant the 
tree, but he remains an operator ; the art is intel- 
lectual and emotional, and will not confine itself 
in precepts. 




The making of a good and spacious lawn, 
then, is the very first practical consideration in 
a landscape garden. This provided, the gardener 
conceives what is the dominant and central fea- 
ture in the place, and then throws the entire 
premises into subordination with this feature. 
In home grounds this central feature is the house. 
To scatter trees and bushes over the area defeats 
the fundamental purpose of the place, — the pur- 



THE BACKGROUND 



133 



pose to make every part of the grounds lead up 
to the home and to accentuate its homelikeness. 
Keep the center of the place open. Plant the 
borders. Avoid all disconnected, cheap, patchy, 
and curious effects. 

If the lawn then, is the canvas, the house is 




\,.r=. ,„, ^ . ..^*-;;^-=^-"' „,i'>'.,''ib. 






Hs,:/-' 







127. A home. 



the central object in the picture. All the planting 
should be subordinate and accessory to it. This 
central object should itself be defined by a back- 
ground. A house which stands on a bare plain 
or hill is a part of the universe, not a part of a 
home. Recall the cozy little farmhouse which is 
backed by a wood or an orchard ; then compare 
some pretentious structure which stands apart 
from all planting. Or observe Uie wai'mth and 



134 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



homelikeness which the background gives to Fig. 
127. Yet how many are the farmhouses which 
stand as stark and cold against the sky as if they 
were competing with the moon! We would not 
believe it possible for a man to live in a house 




128. Well planned but poorly executed. 



twenty- five years and not, by accident, allow some 
tree to grow, were it not that it is so ! 

It is not* enough that trees and bushes be 
planted in masses. They must be kept in masses 
by letting them grow freely in a natural manner. 
The pruning-knife is the most inveterate enemy 
of shrubbery. Pictures 128 and 129 illustrate 
what I mean. The former represents a good 
group of bushes so far as arrangement is con- 
cerned, but it has been ruined by the shears. 
The attention of the observer is instantly arrested 
by the individual bushes. Instead of one free 
and expressive object, there are several stiff and 
expressionless ones. If the observer stops to con- 
sider his own thoughts when he comes upon such 



THE SHEARING OF TREES 



135 



a collection, he will likely find himself counting 
the bushes ; or, at least, he will be making 
mental comparisons of the various bushes, and 
wondering why they are not all sheared to be ex- 
actly alike. Fig. 129 shows how the same "artist" 
has treated two deutzias and a juniper. Much 
the same effect could have been secured, and 
with much less trouble, by laying two flour bar- 




129. The three guardsmen. 

rels end to end and standing a third one between 
them. 

I must hasten to say that I have not the 
slightest objection to the shearing of trees. The 
only trouble is in calling the practice art, and 
in putting the trees where people must see them. 
If the operator simply calls the business shear- 



136 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

ing, and puts the things where he and others 
who like them may see them, objection could not 
be raised. Some persons like painted stones, 
others like iron bulldogs in the front yard and 
the word "welcome" worked into the door-mat, 
and others like barbered trees. So long as these 
likes are purely personal, it would seem to be 
better taste to put such curiosities in the back 
yard, where the owner may admire them without 
molestation. 

I do not mean to discourage the use of flowers 
and bright foliage and striking forms of vege- 
tation ; but these things are never primary con- 
siderations in a good place. The structural ele- 
ments of the place are designed first. The flank- 
ing and bordering masses are then planted. 
Finally, the flowers and accessories are put in, 
in just the same way that a house is painted 
after it is built. Flowers appear to best advan- 
tage when seen against a background of foliage, 
and they are then, also, an integral part of the 
picture. The flower garden, as such, should be 
at the rear or side of a place, the same as all 
other strictly personal appurtenances are ; but 
flowers and bright leaves may be freely scattered 
along the borders and near the foliage masses. 

The use of flower-beds is so commonly misun- 
derstood that I must expatiate upon the fact, even 
at the risk of putting my reader to sleep. It is 
commonly assumed that many people have no 



FLOWER-BEDS 137 

love or appreciation of flowers, but it is probably 
nearer to the truth to saj- that no person is wholly 
lacking in this respect. Even those persons who 
declare that they care nothing for flowers, are 
generally deceived by their dislike of flower-beds 
and the conventional methods of flower-growing. 
I know many people who stoutly denj^ any liking 
for flowers, but who, nevertheless, are rejoiced 
with the blossoming of the orchards and the pur- 
ple bloom of the clover fields. The fault is not 
so much with the persons themselves as w^ith the 
methods of growing and displaying the flowers. 

The greatest fault with our flower-growing is 
the stinginess of it. We grow our flowers as if 
they were the choicest rarities, to be coddled in a 
hotbed or under a bell -jar, and then to be ex- 
hibited as single specimens in some little pinched 
and ridiculous hole cut in the turf, or perched 
upon an ant-hill which some gardener has labo- 
riously heaped upon a lawn. Nature, on the other 
hand, grows her flowers in the most luxurious 
abandon, and one can pick an armful without 
offense. She grows her flowers in earnest, as a 
man grows a crop of corn. One can revel in the 
color and the fragrance, and be satisfied. 

The next fault with our flower-growing is the 
flower-bed. Nature has no time to make flower- 
beds; she is busy growing flowers. And, then, 
if she were given to flower-beds, the whole 
effect would be lost, for she could no longer be 



138 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



luxurious and wanton, and if a flower were picked 
her whole scheme might be upset. Imagine a 
geranium -bed or a coleus-bed, with its wonderful 
"design," set out into a wood or in a free and 
open landscape! Even the birds would laugh 
at it! 

What I want to say is that we should grow 
flowers when we make a flower-garden. Have 




130. The flower-garden is by itself, and at one side 
or in the rear of the place. 



enough of them to make it worth the effort. I 
sympathize with the man who likes sunflowers. 
There is enough of them to be worth looking at. 
They fill the eye. Now show this man ten square 
feet of pinks, or asters, or daisies, all growing 
free and easy, and he will tell you that he likes 
them. All this has a particular application to the 
farmer. He grows potatoes and buckwheat and 



THE FLOWER-BED 139 

weeds by the acre: two or three unhappy pinks 
or o^erauinms are not enough to make an im- 
pression. 

I suppose that everyone feels that the greatest 
charm of any landscape in the north is the green- 
sward. It is the canvas upon which every artist- 
planter attempts to make a picture. But imagine 
a painter putting a glowing bed of coleuses on 
his canvas for a center -piece! The fact is, the 
easiest way to spoil a good lawn is to put a flower- 
bed in it; and the most effective way in which to 
show off flowers to the least advantage is to plant 
them in a bed in the greensward. Flowers need 
a background. We do not hang our pictures on 
fence -posts. If flowers are to be grown on a 









' l|iv<,Kill((iin; ■■ 



• >v\iii((tiiii(flKr((c.. 



131, A hole in the ground. In July, August and 
September it was a carpet-bed. 

lawn, let them be of the hardy kind, which can be 
naturalized in the sod and which grow freely in 
the tall unmown grass. Lawns, upon their part, 



140 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



should be large, free and generous, but the more 
they are cut up and worried with trivial effects 
the smaller and meaner they look. 

But if we consider these lawn flower-beds 
wholly apart from their surroundings, we must 



3. f- 







vHyikiuBltitol-iisSUi' 



"'."lflllll,lll,.<l, 

" '!iM*"!;v;ru,„m, 



'..Mill'SiiHlli 






v^;:;!':i!i'':^;i:"i''»'H'';Hl"ll"V;« 



132. Worth paying admittance to see! 



admit that they are at best unsatisfactory. It 
generally amounts to this, that we have four 
months of sparse and downcast vegetation, one 
month of limp and frost-bitten plants, and seven 
months of bare earth or mud. I am not now 
opposing the carpet -beds which professional gar- 
deners make in parks and other museums. I like 
museums, and some of the carpet beds and set 
pieces are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (see 



FLOWERS IN LAWNS 



141 



Fig. 132). I am directing my remarks to those 
humble home-made flower-beds which are so 
common in lawns of country and city homes 
alike. These beds are cut from the good fresh 




133. A heav> bordei which shuts out a bleak held. In 
front of this border is an ideal place for flowers. 

turf, often in the most fantastic designs, and are 
filled with such plants as the women of the 
place may be able to carry over in cellars or in 
the window. The plants themselves may look 
very well in pots, but when they are turned out 
of doors they have a sorry time for a month 
adapting themselves to the sun and winds, and 
it is generally well on towards midsummer before 
the}' begin to cover the earth. During all these 
weeks they have demanded more time and labor 
than would have been needed to care for a plan- 
tation of much greater size, and which would 



142 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

have given flowers every day from the time the 
birds began to nest in the spring until the last 
robin had flown in November. 

I wish that instead of saying flower-bed we 
might say flower- border. Any good place, as I 
have said, should have its center open. The sides 
may be more or less confined by plantings of 
shrubs and trees and many kinds of herbs. This 
border -planting sets bounds to the place, and 
makes it one's own. The person lives inside his 
place, not on it. He is not cramped and 
jostled by things scattered all over the place, 
with no purpose or meaning. Along the borders, 
against groups, often by the corners of the resi- 
dence or in front of porches, — these are places for 
flowers. When planting, do not aim at designs or 
effects: just have lots of flowers, a variety of 
them, growing luxuriantly, as if they could not 
help it. Ten flowers against a background are 
more effective than a hundred in the opo-n yard. 

I have asked a professional artist, Mr. Mathews, 
to draw me the kind of a flower-bed that he likes. 
It is shown in Fig. 134. It is a border, — a strip 
of land two or three feet wide along a fence. 
This is the place where pigweeds usually grow. 
Here he has planted marigolds, gladiolus, golden- 
rod, wild asters, China asters, and — best of all — 
hollyhocks. Any one would like that flower-gar- 
den. It has some of that local and indefinable 
charm which always attaches to an "old-fashioned 



THE FLOWER -BORDER 



143 




134. .An informal flower-border. ' ' 34^vw;*'^^ 

garden," with its exuberant tangle of form and 
color. Every yard has some such strip of land 
along a rear walk or fence or against a building. 
It is the easiest thing to plant it, — ever so much 
easier than digging the hideous geranium bed 
into the center of an inoffensive lawn. 



144 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

Speaking of the old-fashioned garden reminds 
me of one of William Falconer's excellent para- 
graphs ("Gardening," November 15, 1897, p. 75): 
"We tried it in Schenley Park this year. We 
needed a handy dumping ground, and hit on the 
head of a deep ravine between two woods; into 
it we dumped hundreds upon hundreds of wagon 
loads of rock and clay, filling it near to the top, 
then surfaced it with good soil. Here we planted 
some shrubs, and broadcast among them set out 
scarlet poppies, eschscholtzias, dwarf nasturtiums, 
snapdragons, pansies, marigolds, and all manner 
of hardy herbaceous plants, having enough of 
each sort to make a mass of its kind and color, 
and the effect was fine. In the middle was a 
plantation of hundreds of clumps of Japan and 
German irises interplanted, thence succeeded by 
thousands of gladioli, and banded with montbre- 
tias, from which we had flowers till frost. The 
steep face of this hill was graded a little and a 
series of winding stone steps setin to it, making 
the descent into the hollow quite easy; the stones 
were the rough, uneven slabs secured in blasting 
the rocks when grading in other parts of the park, 
and both along outer edges of the steps and the 
sides of the upper walk a wide belt of moss pink 
was planted ; and the banks all about were 
planted with shrubs, vines, wild roses, columbines 
and other plants. More cameras and kodaks were 
levelled by visitors at this piece of gardening than 



INFORMAL FLOWER -BORDERS 145 

at any other spot in the park, and still we had 
acres of painted summer beds." 

There is no prescribed rule as to what one 
should put into these informal flower -borders. Put 
in them the plants you like. Perhaps the greater 
part of them should be perennials, which come up 
of themselves every spring, and which are hardy 
and reliable. Wild flowers are particularly effec- 
tive. Everyone knows that many of the native 
herbs of woods and glades are more attractive 
than some of the most prized garden flowers. 
The greater part of these native flowers grow 
readily in cultivation, sometimes even in places 
which, in soil and exposure, aremuch unlike their 
native haunts. Many of them make thickened 
roots, and they may be safely transplanted at any 
time after the flowers have passed. To most per- 
sons, the wild flowers are less known than many 
exotics which have smaller merit, and the exten- 
sion of cultivation is constantly tending to anni- 
hilate them. Here, then, in the informal flower- 
border, is an opportunity to rescue them. Then 
one may sow in freely of easy -growing annuals, 
as marigolds, China asters, petunias and phloxes, 
and sweet peas. One of the advantages of these 
borders is that they are always ready to receive 
more plants, unless they are full. That is, their 
symmetry is not marred if some plants are pulled 
out and others are put in. And if the weeds now 
and then get a start, very little harm is done. 



146 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



Such a border half full of weeds is handsome] 
than the average well kept geranium bed, becaus< 
the weeds enjoy growing and the geraniums d( 
not. I have such a border, three feet wide anc 
ninety feet long, beside a rear walk. I am putting 
plants into it every month in the year when th( 
frost is out of the ground. Plants are dug in th( 




135. A good place for flowers in a formal border. 

woods or fields, whenever I find one which I fancy 
even if in July. The tops are cut off, the roofe 
kept moist, and even though the soil is a mosi 
unkindly one, most of these much -abused plants 
grow. To be sure, there are some weeds in it; 
but then, the weeds are a part of the collection! 
A well grown bull-thistle in such a place is wortl 



A WEEDLAND BORDER 147 

more than a bushel of potatoes. These plants 
have been lifted from the fields in the most care- 
less fashion. A noble plant of the pink -hearted 
Spirgea lobata was pulled from a swamp in July 
when it was in full bloom; the bluebells have 
been stolen from cliffs without regard to time or 
season; some of the roots were carried in the 
pocket for hours before the opportunity came for 
planting, and this, too, in the height of summer. 
Of course, some plants have resented this treat- 
ment, but the border is a happy famih', and it is 
all the better and more personal because it is the 
result of moments of relaxation. Such a border 
has something new and interesting everj^ month 
of the growing season; and even in the winter 
the tall clumps of grasses and aster -stems wave 
their plumes above the snow and are a source of 
delight to every frolicksome bevy of snowbirds. 

I have spoken of this choice little weedland to 
show how simple and easy a thing it is to make 
an attractive mass -plantation. Set aside a bit of 
ground in the right place. Make the most of a 
rock (Fig. 136), or bank, or other undesirable 
feature of the place. Spade up the ground and 
make it rich, and then set plants in it. That is 
all there is of it. You will not get it to suit you 
the first year, and perhaps not the second or 
the third one. You can always pull out plants 
and put more in. I should be sorry if it did 
perfectly suit you, for I should then feel that you 



148 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

had lost interest iu it. I should never want a 
lawn -garden if I could not change it a little or 
plant something new each year. 

What kinds of shrubs and flowers shall I plant ? 
This is a wholly secondary and largely a personal 
consideration. Be sure that the main plantings 
are made up of hardy and vigorous species, and 
have lots of them. Then get the things which 
you like. I like bull- thistles, lilacs, hollyhocks, 
burdocks. rhul:)arb. dogwoods, spireas. elders and 



I V>;^^ ^ 






y- 




136. 3Iakiug the inost of a rock. 

such careless things. But others have better 
taste. There is endless merit in the choice of 
species, but the point I wish to emphasize is that 
the arrangement or disposition of the plants is 
far more important than the kinds. 

It should be said that the appreciation of 
foliage effects in the landscape is a higher type 
of feeling than the desire for mere color. Flowers 
are transitory, but foliage and plant forms are 
abiding. The common roses have verv little value 



SHRUBS FOR LAWNS 



149 



for landscape planting, because the foliage and 
habit of the rose bush are not attractive, the 
leaves are inveterately attacked by bugs, and the 
blossoms are fleeting. Some of the wild roses 
and the Japanese Rosa rugosa, however, have 
distinct merit for mass effects. Wild bushes 






k< AT' 



^. 



■V ^ 







,*> 






137. Making a picture with rhubarb. 

are nearly always attractive when planted in 
borders and groups. They improve in appear- 
ance under cultivation, because they are given 
a better chance to grow. In wild nature, there 
is such a fierce struggle for existence that plants 
usually grow to few or single stems, and they are 
sparse and scraggly in form ; but once given all 



150 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

the room they want and a good soil, and they be- 
come hixurious, full and comely. In most home 
grounds in the country, the body of the planting 
may be very effectively made by the use of bushes 
taken from adjacent woods and fields. The 
masses may then be enlivened by the addition 
here and there of cultivated bushes, and the plant- 
ing of flowers and herbs about the borders. It 
is not essential that one know the names of these 
wild bushes, although a knowledge of their botani- 
cal features will add greatly to the pleasure of 
growing them. Neither will they look common 
when transferred to the lawn. There are very 
few people who know even the commonest wild 
bushes intimately, and the bushes change so 
much in looks when removed to rich grounds 
that few people recognize them. I have a mass 
of shrubbery (Fig. 140) which is much admired, 
and visitors are always asking me what the 
bushes are , yet I dug the roots in the neighbor- 
hood. 

It is but a corollary of this discussion to say 
that plants which are simply odd or grotesque or 
unusual should be used with the greatest caution, 
for they introduce extraneous and jarring effects. 
They are little in sympathy with a landscape gar- 
den. An artist would not care to paint an ever- 
green which is sheared into some grotesque shape. 
It is too formal, and it has no elements of true 
beauty. It is only curious, and shows what a 



WEEPING TREES 



151 



man with plenty of time and long pruning shears 
can accomplish. A weeping tree is nearly al- 
ways seen to best advantage when it stands 
against a group or mass of foliage (Fig. 138) as 
a promontory, adding zest and spirit to the border. 
This leads me to speak of the planting of the 
Lombardy poplar, which may be taken as a type 







-«..<iii«»(iC''tli.liS|g^j;g5^jj^_ 



138. A weeping tree well placed. 



of the formal tree. Fortunately, this tree is less 
planted in New York than in many western states. 
Its chief merits to the average planter are the 
quickness of its growth and the readiness with 
which it multiplies by cuttings. But in the north 
it is apt to be a short-lived tree, and it suffers 
from storms, and it has few really useful quali- 
ties. It may be used to some advantage in wind- 



152 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

breaks for peach orchards and other short-lived 
plantations; but after a few years a screen of 
Lombardies begins to fail, and the habit of suck- 
ering from the root adds to its undesirable fea- 
tures. For shade it has little merit, and for tim- 
ber none. People like it because it is striking, 
and this, in an artistic sense, is its gravest fault. 
It is unlike anything else in our landscape, and 
does not fit into our scenery well The Lombardy 
should rarely, if ever, be seen as a single speci- 
men; and above all, its formality and stiifness 
should not be emphasized by planting it in rows 
along country roads. A row of Lombardies along 
a roadside is like a row of exclamation points! 

But the tree can often be used to good effect as 
one factor in a group of trees, where its spire-like 
shape, towering above the surrounding foliage, 
may lend a spirited charm to the landscape. It 
combines well in such groups if it stands in visual 
nearness to chimneys or other tall formal objects. 
Then it gives a sort of architectural finish and 
spirit to a group of trees; but the effect is gen- 
erally lessened, if not altogether spoiled, if more 
than one Lombardy is in view. One or two speci- 
mens may often be used to give vigor to heavy 
plantations about low buildings, and the effect is 
generally best if they are seen beyond or at the 
rear of the building. 

Another feature of common ornamental plant- 
ing, which is well illustrated in the use of poplars, 



POPLARS AND WILLOWS 153 

is the desire for plants merely because they grow 
rapidly. A very rapid -growing tree nearly always 
produces cheap effects. This is well illustrated in 
the common planting of willows and poplars about 
summer places or lake shores. Their effect is 
almost wholly one of cheapness and temporari- 
ness. There is little that suggests strength or 
durability in willows and poplars, and for this 
reason they should always be used as minor or 
secondary features in ornamental or home grounds. 
Where quick results are desired, nothing is better 
to plant than these trees, but better trees, like 
maples, oaks, or elms, should be planted with 
them, and the poplars and willows should be re- 
moved as fast as the other species begin to afford 
protection. When the plantation finally assumes 
its permanent characters, a few of the remaining 
poplars and willows, judiciously left, may afford 
very excellent effects ; but no one who has an 
artist's feeling would be content to construct the 
frame work of his place of these rapid -growing 
and soft -wooded trees. 

I have said that the legitimate use of poplars in 
ornamental grounds is in the production of 
minor or secondary effects. As a rule, they are 
less adapted to isolated planting as specimen 
trees than to use in composition, — that is, as 
parts of general groups of trees, where their char- 
acters serve to break the monotony of heavier 
foliage. The poplars are gay trees, as a rule, 



154 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

especially those, like the aspens, which have a 
trembling foliage. Their leaves are bright and 
the tops are thin. A few of them in judicious 
positions give a place a sprightly air. I especially 
love the common aspen, or Populus treniuloides, of 
our woods. Its dangling catkins (Fig. 139), light, 
dancing foliage and silver -gray limbs always cheer 
me, and its* autumn color is one of the purest 
golden -yellows of our landscapes. I like to see a 
tree of it standing out in front of a group of 
maples or evergreens. Its whole attitude is then 
one of familiarity. 

I will conclude this sketch of the ideas asso- 
ciated with the picture in the landscape with an 
article which I contributed to a recent issue of 
"Park and Cemetery," entitled "\Yhat are the 
fundamental concepts in landscape gardeningf" 

If the teacher or writer is to make any subject 
plain to his pupils or readers, he must be able to 
single out a few simple and fundamental prin- 
ciples. To state facts and rules is to treat only 
the incidents of the subject. Rules are not final. 
They express only the experience of the author 
or the combined experiences of others; and since 
experiences vary, the nature and the application 
of the rules must vary according to circumstances. 
People are forever misunderstanding what land- 
scape gardening is, because we are always telling 
them what kinds of trees to plant and how to 






-^ 









^,>Vv^J1^^.t'.<A^>^ \H^ v^l5 >// -r5? 





156 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

plant them. But the planter may not know why 
he plants. 

The first instruction which should be given in 
landscape gardening, I think, is this: The object 
of landscape gardening is to malce a picture. All 
the grading, seeding, planting, are incidental and 
supplemental to this one central idea. The green- 
sward is the canvas, the house or some other 
prominent point is the central figure, the plant- 
ing completes the composition and adds the color. 

The second fundamental idea, I think, is the 
principle that the picture should have a landscape 
effect. That is, it should be nature -like. Carpet- 
beds are masses of color, not pictures. They are 
the little garnishings and reliefs which are to be 
used very cautiously, in the same way that little 
eccentricities and conventionalisms in a building 
should never be more than very minor features. 

Every other concept in landscape gardening is 
subordinate to these two. They are explanations 
of the means and methods of making the picture. 
Some of the most important of these secondary, 
yet fundamental, concepts are as follows: 

Conceive of the place as a unit. If a building 
is not pleasing, ask an architect to improve it. 
The real architect will study the building as a 
whole, grasp its design and meaning, and suggest 
improvements which will add to the forcefulness 
of the entire structure. A dabbler would add a 
chimney here, a window there, and apply various 



FUNDAMENTALS OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 157 

daubs of paint to the building. Each of these 
features might be good in itself. The paints might 
be the best of ochre, ultramarine or paris green, 
but they would have no relation to the building 
as a whole and would be only ludicrous. These 
two examples illustrate the difference between 
landscape gardening and the scattering over the 
place of mere ornamental features. 

Have some one central and emphatic point in 
the picture. A picture of a battle draws its in- 
terest from the action of a central figure or group. 
The moment the incidental and lateral figures are 
made as prominent as the central figures, the 
picture loses emphasis, life and meaning. The 
borders of a place are of less importance than its 
center. Therefore 

Keep the center of the place open. Frame 
and mass the sides. 

Avoid scattered effects. Flowers and high- 
colored foliage are most effective against a back- 
ground of green foliage. A flower-bed in the 
middle of a lawn is onlj' a flower-bed; against 
the border -planting it is not only a flower-bed, 
but it may be also a structural part of the 
picture. 

Flowers are incidents in a landscape picture. 
Thej' add emphasis, supply color, give variety and 
finish; they are the ornaments, but the lawn and 
the mass -plantings make the framework. One 
flower in the border, and made an incident of the 



158 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



picture, is more effective than twenty flowers in 
the center of the lawn. 

More depends upon the positions which plants 
occupy with reference to each other and to the 




^i^i'iSSKSWKiijj;^ 









140. A front yard planting. 

structural design of the place, than upon the 
intrinsic merits of the plants themselves. 

Landscape gardening, then, is the embellish- 
ment of grounds in such a way that they will have 
a nature -like or landscape effect. 



VARIOUS SPECIFIC EXAMPLES 

The foregoing remarks will mean more if the 
reader is shown some concrete examples. I have 
selected a few cases, not because they are the 



A FRONT -YARD PLANTING 



159 



best, or even because they are always good 
enough for models, but because they lie in my 
way and illustrate what I desire to teach. We 
will first look at a very ordinary front yard. 
It contained no plants, except a pear tree stand- 
ing near the corner of the house. Four years 
later sees the yard as shown in Fig. 140. An 
exochorda is the large bush in the very fore- 
ground, and the porch foundation is screened 
and a border is thereby given to the lawn. The 
length of this planting from end to end is about 




fourteen feet, with a projection towards the 
front on the left of ten feet. In the bay at 
the base of this projection the planting is only 
two feet wide, and from here it gradual Ij^ swings 
out to the steps, eight feet wide. The promi- 



160 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



nent large-leaved plant near the steps is a 
bramble, Rubus odoratus, very common in the 
neighborhood, and it is a choice plant for 
decorative planting. The plants in this tangle in 
front of the porch are all from the wild, and 




142. Diagram of back-yard. 50 x 90 ft. 



comprise a prickly ash, several plants of two wild 
osiers or dogwoods, a spice bush, rose, wild sun- 
flowers and asters and golden -rods. The pro- 
montory at the left is a more ambitious but less 
effective mass. It contains an exochorda, a reed, 
variegated elder, sacaline, variegated dogwood, 
tansy, and a young tree of wild crab. At the 



PLANTING OF SMALL YARDS 161 

rear of the plantation, next the house*, one sees 
the pear tree. The best single part of the plant- 
ing is the reed (Arundo Donax) overtopping the 
exochorda (not shown in the picture). The pho- 
tograph was taken early in summer, before the 
reed had become conspicuous. 

A ground plan of this planting is shown in Fig. 
141. At A is the walk and B the steps. An 
opening at D serves as a walk. The main plant- 
ing, in front of the porch, fourteen feet long, 
received twelve plants, some of which have now 
spread into large clumps. At 1 is a large bush of 
osier, Cornus Baileyi. 
At 2 is a mass of Rubus 
odoratus ; at 5 asters and 
golden -rods; at 3 a clump 
of wild sunflowers. The 
projecting planting on 

the left comprises about 143. Cabin opening out 

, 1 i o T,- 1 ,1 from the border planting. 

ten plants, oi which 4 

is exochorda, 6 is arundo or reed, at the back of 
which is a large clump of sacaline, and 7 is a 
variegated -leaved elder. 

A back yard is shown in Fig. 142. The owner 
wanted a tennis court, and the yard is so small 
as not to allow of wide planting at the borders. 
However, something could be done. Upon the 
left is the weed- land border, mentioned on page 
146. In the first place, a good lawn was made. 
In the second place, no walks or drives were 

K 




162 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



laid in the area. The drive for grocers' wagons 
and coal is seen in the rear, ninety feet from 
the house. From I to J is the weedland, sep- 
arating the area from the neighbor's premises. 
Near I is a clump of roses. At K is a large 
bunch of golden-rods. H marks a clump of 
yucca. G is a cabin, covered with vines on the 
front, and shown in Figs. 143, 144. From G 




144. Rustic bark-covered cabin. 

to F is an irregular border, about six feet wide, 
containing barberries, forsythias, wild elder, and 
other bushes. D E is a screen of Russian mul- 
berry, setting off the clothes yard from the front 
lawn. Near the back porch, at the end of the 
screen, is an arbor covered with wild grapes, 
making a playhouse for the children. A clump 
of lilacs stands at A. At B is a vine- covered 
screen, serving as a hammock support. The 
lawn made and the planting done, it was next 
necessary to lay the walks. These are wholly 
informal affairs, made by sinking a plank ten 
inches wide into the ground to a level with the 




145. An area made ready for the seeding and planting. 




■■■^nl-" '■•""■■"'•■■*■■' 



^..-♦■■i§g??&ir 



146. Five years' growth upon the above area. 



164 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

sod. The border plantings of this yard are too 
straight and regular for the most artistic results, 
but such was necessary in order not to encroach 
upon the central space. Yet the reader will no 
doubt agree that this yard is much better than 
it could be made by any system of scattered and 
spotted planting. Let him imagine how a glow- 
ing carpet -bed would look set down in the cen- 
ter of this lawn! 

The making of a landscape picture is well illus- 
trated in Figs. 145, 146. The former shows a small 
clay field (seventy five feet wide and three hundred 
feet deep), with a barn at the rear. In front of 
the barn is a screen of willows. The observer is 
looking from the dwelling house. The area has 
been plowed and seeded for a lawn. The opera- 
tor has then marked out a devious line upon 
either border with a hoe handle, and all the space 
between these borders has been gone over with a 
garden roller to mark the area of the desired 
greensward. The borders are now planted with 
a variety of small trees, bushes and herbs. Five 
years later the view shown in Fig. 146 was taken. 

A back yard is shown in Fig. 147. It is approx- 
imatelj' sixty feet square. At present it contains 
a drive, which is unnecessary, expensive to keep 
in repair, and destructive of any attempt to make 
a picture of the area. The place could be im- 
proved by planting it somewhat after the manner 
of Fig. 148. 



r- 




149. Plan of a city yard, waiting for planting. 



PLANTING A CITY YARD 167 

A plan of a city lot is given in Fig. 149. The 
area is fifty by one hundred, and the house occu- 
pies the greater part of the width. It is level, 
but the surrounding land is higher, resulting in a 
sharp terrace, three or four feet high, on the rear, 
E D. This terrace vanishes at C on the right, but 
extends nearly the whole length of the other 
side, gradually diminishing as it approaches A. 
There is a terrace two feet high extending from 
A to B, along the front. Beyond the line E D 
is the rear of an establishment which it is desired 
to hide. Since the terraces set definite borders 
to this little place, it is desirable to plant the 
boundaries rather heavily. If the adjoining lawns 
were on the same level, or if the neighbors would 
allow one area to be merged into the other by 
pleasant slopes, the three yards might be made into 
one picture ; but the place must remain isolated. 

There are three problems of structural plant- 
ing in the place : to provide a cover or screen 
at the rear ; to provide lower border masses on 
the side terraces ; to plant next the foundations 
of the house. Aside from these problems, the 
grower is entitled to have a certain number of 
specimen plants, if he has particular liking for 
given types, but these specimens must be planted 
in some relation to the structural masses, and 
not in the middle of the lawn. 

The following shi-ubs were actually selected and 
planted. The place is in central New York, 



168 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



Shrubs for Tall Bacl'ground. 

2 Barberry, Berheris vulgaris and var. purpurea. 

1 Coraus Mas. 

2 Tall deutzias. 

3 Lilacs. 

2 Mock oranges, PhiladelpJms grandijiorus and P. coro- 
narius. 

2 Variegated elders. 

2 Elseagnus, E. hortensls and E. longipes. 

1 Exochorda. 

2 Hibiscuses. 
1 Privet. 

3 Viburnums. 
1 Snowball. 

1 Tartarian honeysuckle. 

1 Silver Bell, Halesia tetr'aptera. 

These were planted on the sloping bank of the 
terrace, from E to D. The terrace has an in- 



K</ 



?«*W«*^ 






A''"i^'ift^^- 



150. The planting of the terrace in Fig. 149. 



cline, or width, of abont three feet. Fig. 150 
shows this terrace after the planting was done, 
looking from the point C. 



PLANTING A CITY YARD 169 



Shnihs of Medium Size, Suitable for Side Plantings and 

Ch'oups. 

3 Barberries, Berheris Thunhergii. 

3 Osier dogwoods, variegated. 

2 Japanese quinces, Cydonia Japonica and C. Maulei. 

4 Tall deutzias. 

1 Variegated elder. 

7 Weigelas, assorted colors. 

1 Rhodotypus. 

9 Spireas of medium growth, assorted 

1 Rubus odoratus. 

1 Lonieera fragrantissima. 

Most of these shrubs were planted in a border 
two feet wide extending from B to C D, the plant- 
ing beginning about ten feet back from the street. 
Some of them were placed upon the terrace at the 
left, extending from E one- fourth of the distance 
to A. The plants were set about two feet apart. 
A strong clump was placed at N to screen the 
back yard. In this back yard a few small fruit 
trees and a strawberry bed were planted. 

Loiv Informal Shrubs for Front of Porch and Baulking 
Against House. 

3 Deutzia gracilis. 

6 Kerrias, green and variegated. 
3 Daphne Mezereum. 
3 Lonieera Halliana. 
3 Rubus phoenicolasius. 

3 Symphoricarpus vulgaris. 

4 Mahonias. 

1 Ribes aureum. 



170 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

1 Ribes sanguineum. 
1 Rubus crataegifolius. 

1 Rubus fruticosus var. laciniatus. 

These bushes were planted against the front of 
the house (a porch on a high foundation extends 
to the right from 0), from the walk around to P, 
and a few of them were placed at the rear of the 
house. 

Specimen Shrubs for mere Ornament. 

Azalea. 

Rhododendron . 
Rose. 

2 Hydrangeas. 
1 Snowball. 

1 each Forsythia suspensa and F. viridissima. 

2 Flowering almonds. 

These were planted in conspicuous places here 
and there against the other masses. 

Here are one hundred excellent and interesting 
bushes planted in a yard only fifty feet wide and 
one hundred feet deep, and yet the place has as 
much room in it as it had before ! There is abun- 
dant opportunity along the borders for dropping 
in cannas, dahlias, hollyhocks, asters, geraniums, 
coleuses, and other brilliant paints. The bushes 
will soon begin to crowd, to be sure, but a mass 
is wanted; but the narrowness of the plantations 
will allow each bush to develop itself laterallj^ to 
perfection. If the borders become too thick, 



A CITY YARD 



171 



however, it is an easy matter to remove some of 
the bushes; but they probably will not. Picture 
the color and variety and life in that little yard! 
And if a pigweed now and then gets a start in 



^,«i,? fij'fifetif 




j|i,;,£.5ii^-^-> 






.„.„„..,,l,fc ,«oll«u..,...«««*W''"~ 

151. Nine shnibs. 



,-*'>;? ff^^^il* 











152. A bank of verdure and color. 



the border, let it alone: it belongs there! Then 
picture the same area filled with disconnected, 
spotty, dyspeptic and unspirited flower-beds and 
rose bushes! 

Strong and bare foundations should be relieved 
by heavy planting. Fill the corners with snow- 
drifts of foliage. The corner by the steps is a 
perennial source of bad temper. The lawn mower 



172 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



will not touch it, and the grass has to be cut 

with a butcher-knife. Plant a burdock in it ! 

The tennis -screen may 
be relieved by a back- 
ground (Fig. 154) and a 
clump of ribbon- grass is 
out of the way against a 
post (Fig. 155). 

A word should be said 
about just how to make a 
group. Dig up the entire 
area. Never set the bushes 
in holes dug in the sod 
(Fig. 156). Spade up the 
ground, set the bushes 

thick, hoe them at intervals, and then let them go. 

If you do not like the bare earth between them, 




The corner by 

the steps. 




154. Tennis-screen against the border-mass. 



HOW TO MAKE THE GROUPS 



173 



sow in the seeds of hardy annual flowers, like 
phlox, petunia, alyssum and pinks. The person 
who plants his shrubs in holes in the sward does 
not seriously mean to make any foliage mass, 
and it is likely that he does not know what re- 
lation the border-mass has to artistic planting. I 
have said to plant the bushes thick. This is for 




''"■■■I.- >ik'~ 



155. Clump of ribbon-grass against the clothes -post. 

quick effect. It is an easy matter to thin the 
plantation if it becomes too thick. I should gen- 
erally plant all common bushes as close as two 
feet apart each way, especially if I get most of 
them from the fields, so that I do not have to 
buy them. Excellent mass effects may also be 
obtained by cutting well established plants of 
sumac, ailanthus, basswood, and other strong- 



174 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

growing things, to the ground each year, for the 
purpose of securing the stout shoots. Fig. 157 
will give the hint. 

But if one has no area which he can make into 
a lawn and upon which he can plant such verdur- 
ous masses, what then maj- he do? Even then 
there may be opportunity for a little neat and 
artistic planting. Even if one lives in a rented 
house, he may bring in a bush or an herb from 
the woods, and paint a picture with it. Plant it 
in the corner by the steps, in front of the porch, 











156. Poor little things! 

at the corner of the house, — almost anywhere 
except in the center of the lawn. Make the 
ground rich, secure a strong root and plant it with 
care; then wait. The little clump will not only 
have a beauty and interest of its own, but it will 
add immensely to the furniture of the yard. 
About its base one may plant stray bulbs of glow- 
ing tulips or dainty snowdrops and lilies -of- the- 
valley; and these may be followed with pansies 
and phlox and other simple folk. Very soon one 
finds himself deeply interested in these random 
and detached pictures, and almost before he is 
aware he finds that he has rounded off the corners 



MINOR PICTURES 



175 



of the house, made snug little arbors of wild 
grapes and clematis, covered the rear fence and 
the outhouse with actinidia and bitter-sweet, and 
has thrown in dashes of color with hollyhocks, 
cannas and lilies, and has tied the foundations of 
the buildings to the greensward by low strands of 




■^•"'sS3*;;SS&«!*:r::::':: 



: 1 ', - - 



V-'llo-'^^'KlMV. ..-1. 

■:^^*lv.•Jl^»"••"•■;i|l•». 



157. Ailanthus and sunflowers. 



vines or deft bits of planting. He soon comes to 
feel that flowers are most expressive of the best 
emotions when they are daintily dropped in here 
and there against a background of foliage. Pres- 
ently he rebels at the bold, harsh and impudent 
designs of some of the gardeners, and grows into 
a pure and subdued love of plant forms and ver- 
dure. He may still like the weeping and cut- 
leaved and party-colored trees of the horticul- 



176 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

turist, but he sees that their best effects are to be 
had when they are planted sparingly, as flowers 
are, as borders or promontories of the structural 
masses. 

These various discussions and pictures will fix 
in the reader's mind the importance of a simple 
structural design for the home grounds. The 
essential elements of this design are the open 
center and the well -planted sides. It is par- 
ticularly important that the view to and from 
the front of the dwelling house be kept open, 
for otherwise there can be little conception of 
pictorial effect in the composition. It is a grave 
mistake to cover up or to obscure the one central 
and important feature of the place. 

It all amounts to this, that the best planting, 
like the best painting and the best music, is 
possible only with the best and tenderest feeling 
and the closest living with nature. One's place 
grows to be a reflection of himself, changing as 
he changes, and expressing his life and sympa- 
thies to the last. 







' ' ''\'^,^^^^il-!^^'^/ ^V ,a,-,v 



?ac^\^ 






158. Birds build their nests here. 




THE GRADING 



177 



HOW TO MAKE THE IMPR0VE3IENTS. 

After the home maker has devised a general 
scheme or plan of his area, he will inquire how 
to go about it to prepare the land and to lay out 
the structural design. The remarks which have 
been made in Section I, respecting the prepara- 
tion, tillage and enriching of land, will apply 
to the lawn and the ornamental grounds, but a 




,,>v..~™»\-:r»°''Tv*«-' '^''^*'" " 



v^a. 



159. An ideal bank in the foreground. 



few specific remarks may be useful. The reader 
should also consult the best writings upon land- 
scape gardening and related topics, if he intends 
to make permanent or extensive improvements. 
A priced list of current American horticultural 
books will be found in the third edition of "The 
Horticulturist's Rule-Book." The reader may 
consult with profit Long's "Ornamental Garden- 
ing for Americans" for details of home-making. 
For discussions of the artistic values of plants, 



178 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

Parson's "Landscape Gardening" is invaluable. 
Other books, and horticultural periodicals, may 
be consulted. 

The first consideration is to grade the land. 
Grading is very expensive, especially if performed 
at a season when the soil is heavy with moisture. 
Every effort should be made, therefore, to reduce 
the grading to a minimum and still secure a 
pleasing contour. The smaller the area, the more 
pains must be taken with the grading ; but in 
any plat which is one hundred feet or more 
square, very considerable undulations may be left 
in the surface with excellent effect. In lawns of 
this size, or even half this size, it is rarely ad- 
visable to have them perfectly flat and level. 
They should slope gradually away from the house, 
and when the lawn is seventy-five feet or more 
in width, it may be slightly crowning with good 
effect. A lawn should never be hollow, — that is, 
lower in the center than at the borders, — and 
broad lawns which are perfectly flat and level 
often appear to be hollow. A slope of one foot 
in twenty or thirty is none too much for a 
pleasant grade in lawns of some extent. 

In places in which the natural slope is very 
perceptible, there is a tendency to terrace the 
lawn for the purpose of making the various 
parts or sections of it more or less level and plane. 
In nearly all cases, however, a terrace is objec- 
tionable. It cuts the lawn into two or more por- 



TERRACES 



179 



tions, and thereby makes it look smaller and spoils 
the effect of the picture. Terraces are also ex- 
pensive to make and to keep in order ; and a 
shabby terrace is always to be avoided. When 
formal effects are desired, their value will depend 




160. Treatment of a sloping lawn. 




161. Treatment of a very steep bank. 

very largely upon the rigidity of the lines and the 
care with which they are maintained. If a terrace 
is necessary, it should be in the form of a retaining 
wall next the street, or else it should lie next the 
building, giving as broad and continuous a lawn 
as possible. It should be remembered, however, 
that a terrace next a building should not be a 
part of the landscape, but a part of the architec- 



180 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



ture : that is, it should serve as a base to the 
building. It will at once be seen, therefore, that 
terraces are most in place against those buildings 
which have strong horizontal lines, and 
I they are not suitable against buildings 
with very broken lines and mixed or 
gothic features. In order to join the 
terrace to the building, it is usually ad- 
visable to place some 
architectural feature 
upon its crown, like 
a balustrade, and to 




162. Terrace fall- 
ing too suddenly away 
from the building. 



ascend it b.y means of architectural steps. The 
terrace elevation, therefore, becomes a part of 
the base of the building, and the top of it is 
an esplanade. 

A simple and gradually sloping bank can 
nearly always be made to take the place of a ter- 
race. For example, let the operator make a ter- 
race, with sharp angles above and below, in the 
fall of the year; in the spring, he will find that 
nature has taken the matter in hand and the upper 
angle of the terrace has been washed away and 
deposited in the lower angle, and the result is the 
beginning of a good series of curves. Fig. 159 



THE MAKING OF TERRACES 181 

shows an ideal slope, with its double curve, com- 
prising a convex curve on the top of the bank, 
and a concave curve at the low^er part. This is 
a slope which would ordinarily be terraced, but 
in its present condition it is a part of the land- 
scape picture. It can be mown as readily as any 
other part of the lawn, and takes care of itself. 
A terrace always obtrudes a hard and rigid line, 
and fastens the attention upon itself rather than 
upon the landscape. 

The diagrams in Fig. 160 indicate poor and 
good treatment of a lawn. The terraces are not 
needed in this case; or if they are, they should 
never be made as at" 1. The same dip could be 
taken up in a single curved bank, as at 3, but the 
better way, in general, is to give the treatment 
shown in 2. Fig. 161 shows how a very high 
terrace, 4, can be supplaced by a sloping bank, 5. 
Fig. 162 shows a terrace which falls away too 
suddenly from the house. 

In grading to the borders of the place, it is not 
always necessarj^, nor even desirable, that a con- 
tinuous contour should be obtained. This is 
especially true if the border is higher or lower 
than the lawn. A somewhat irregular line of 
grade will appear to be most natural, and lend 
itself best to effective planting. This is especially 
true in the grade to water -courses, which, as a 
rule, should be more or less devious or winding ; 
and the adjacent land should, therefore, present 



182 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



various heights and contours. It is not always 
necessary, however, to make distinct banks along 
water -courses, especially if the place is small and 




163. Gradual grade to a water-coui-se. Before planting. 

the natural lay of the land is more or less plane or 
flat. A very slight depression, as shown in Fig. 
163, may answer all the purposes of a water 
grade in such places. 

If it is desirable that the lawn be as large 
and spacious as possible, then the boundary of it 
should be removed. Take away the fences, curb- 
ing and other right lines. In rural places, a 
sunken fence may sometimes be placed athwart the 
lawn at its farther edge for the purpose of keep- 
ing cattle off the place, and thereby bring in the 
adjacent landscape. Fig. 164 suggests how this 
may be done. The depression near the foot of 
the lawn, which is really a ditch and scarcely 
visible from the upper part of the place because 
of the slight elevation upon its inner rim, 
answers all the purposes of a fence. 

Nearly all trees are injured if the dirt is filled 
about the base to the depth of a foot or more. 



PROTECTING TREES IN FILLED LAND 183 

The natural crown of the plant should be exposed 
so far as possible. Oaks, maples, and, in fact, 
most trees will lose their bark near the crown if 
the dirt is piled against them; and this is espe- 
cially true if the water tends to settle about the 
trunks. Fig. 165 shows how this difficulty may 
be obviated. A well is stoned up about the tree, 
allowing a space of a foot or two upon all sides, 
and tile drains are laid about the base of the well, 
as shown in the diagram at the right. It is often 
possible to make a sloping bank just above the 
tree, and to allow the ground to fall away from 
the roots of the tree on the lower side, so that 
there is no well or hole about the tree; but this 
is possible only when the land below the tree 
is considerable lower than that above it. 

Walks and drives. — So far as the pic- 
ture in the landscape is concerned, walks and 
drives are blemishes. Since they are necessary. 




164. The sunken fence. 



however, they must form a part of the landscape 
design. They should be as few as possible, not 
only because they interfere with the artistic com- 
position, but also because they are expensive to 



184 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



make and to maintain. Most places have too 
many, rather than too few, walks and drives. 
Small city areas rarely need a driveway entrance, 
not even to the back door. The bacli yard in Fig. 
142 illustrates this point. The distance from the 
house to the street on the back is about ninety 
feet, yet there is no driveway in the place. The 
coal and provisions are carried in; and, although 



a^y ■^~ — 



i^, -, 






4. 
;0^ 





Protecting a tree in filled land. 



the deliverymen may complain at first, they very 
soon accept the inevitable. It is not worth the 
while to maintain a drive in such a place for the 
convenience of truckmen and grocers. Neither 
is it often necessary to have a drive in the front 
yard if the house is within seventy-five or one 
hundred feet of the street. When a drive is 
necessary, it should enter, if possible, at the side 
of the residence, and not make a circle in the front 
lawn. This remark will not apply to large areas 
of a half acre or more. 



WALKS AND DRIVES 



185 



The drives and walks should be direct. They 
should go where they appear to go, and should be 
practically the shortest distances between the points 




1G6. Various types of curves, only g being admissable. 

to be reached. Fig. 166 illustrates some of the 
problems connected with walks to the front door. 
A common type of walk is at a, and is a nui- 



186 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

sance. The time which one loses in going aronnd 
the cameo -set in the center would be sufficient, if 
conserved, to lengthen a man's life by several 
months or a year. Such a device has no merit in 
art or convenience. It is merely an effort on the 
part of the maker to show that he has done some- 
thing. Walk c is better, but still is not ideal, 
inasmuch as it makes too much of a right-angled 
curve, and the pedestrian desires to cut across the 
corner. Such a walk, also, usually extends too far 
beyond the corner of the house to make it appear 
to be direct. It has the merit, however, of leav- 
ing the center of the lawn practically untouched. 
The curve in walk d is ordinarily unnecessary 
unless the ground is rolling. In small places, like 
this, it is better to have a straight walk directly 
from the sidewalk to the house.' In fact, this is 
true in nearly all cases in which the lawn is not 
more than forty to seventy -five feet deep. Plan 
e is also inexcusable. A straight walk would an- 
swer every purpose better. Any walk which passes 
the house, and returns to it, /, is inexcusable un- 
less it is necessar3' to make a very steep ascent. 
If most of the traveling is in one direction from 
the house, a walk like g may be the most direct 
and efficient. It is known as a direct curve, and 
is a compound of a concave and a convex curve. 
It is essential that any walk or drive, however 
long, should be continuous in direction and design 
from end to end. Fig. 167 illustrates a long drive 



CURBS AND EDGINGS 187 

which contradicts this principle. It is a series of 
meaningless curves. The reason for these curves 
is the fact that the drive was extended from time 
to time as new houses were added to the villa. 
The reader will easily perceive how all the kinks 
might be taken out of this drive and one direct 
and bold curve be substituted. 

The sides of walks and drives may often be 
planted with shrubbery. It is not necessary that 
they always have prim and definite borders. 
Fig. 168 illustrates a bank of foliage which breaks 
up the hard line of a walk, and serves also as a 
border for the growing of flowers and interesting 
specimens. This walk is also characterized by the 
absence of high and hard borders. 

Even in cities, it is not always necessary that 
stone copings be used. Fig. 169 illustrates this 
fact, and also shows how the parking between the 
walk and the street may be effectively planted. 
Upon the draining of residence streets, a well- 
known landscape gardener, O. C. Simonds, writes 
as follows in "Park and Cemetery:" 

"The surface drainage is something that inter- 
ests us whenever it rains or when the snow melts. 
It has been customary to locate catch -basins for 
receiving the surface water at street intersections. 
This arrangement causes most of the surface 
water from both streets to run past the crossings, 
making it necessary to depress the pavement, so 
that one must step down and up in going from 



SUBURBAN STREETS 



189 



one side of a street to the other, or else a passage- 
way for the water must be made throuofh the 
crossing. It may be said that a step dow^n to the 
pavement and up again to the sidewalk at the 
street intersections is of no consequence, but it is 
really more elegant and satisfactory to have the 
walk practically continuous. With the catch- 




168. Informal treatment of a walk. 



basin at the corner, the stoppage of the inlet, or 
a great fall of rain, sometimes covers the crossing 
with water, so that one must either wade or go 
out of his way. With catch -basins placed in the 
center of the blocks, or, if the blocks are long, at 
some distance from the crossing, the intersections 



!i! i 




^1 "^ A* .• i 



SUBURBAN STREETS 191 

can be kept relatively high and dry. Roadways 
are generally made crowning in the center, so that 
water runs to the sides, but frequentlj' the fall 
lengthwise of the roadway is less than it should 
be. City engineers are usually inclined to make 
the grade along the length of a street as nearly 
level as possible. Authorities who have given the 
subject of roads considerable stud}' recommend a 
fall lengthwise of not less than one foot in one 
hundred and twenty -five, nor more than six feet 
in one hundred. Such grades are not always fea- 
sible, but a certain amount of variation in level 
can usually be made in a residence street which 
will make it much more pleasing in appearance, 
and have certain practical advantages in keeping 
the street dry. The water is usually confined to 
the edge of the pavement by curbing, which may 
rise anywhere from four to fourteen inches 
above the surface. This causes all the water fall- 
ing on the roadway to seek the catch -basin and 
be wasted, excepting for its use in flushing the 
.sewer. If the curbing, which is really unneces- 
sary in most cases, were omitted, much of the 
surface water would soak into the ground between 
the sidewalk and the pavement, doing much good 
to trees, shrubs and grass. The roots of the trees 
naturally extend as far, or farther, than their 
branches, and for their good the ground under 
the fjavement and sidewalk should be supplied 
w^ith a certain amount of moisture. 



192 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

"The arrangement made for the removal of 
surface water from the street must also take care 
of the surplus water from adjacent lots, so there 
is a practical advantage in having the level of the 
street lower than that of the ground adjoining. 
The appearance of houses and home grounds is 
also much better when they are higher than the 
street, and for this reason it is usually desirable to 
keep the latter as low as possible and give the 
underground pipes sufficient covering to protect 
them from frost. Where the ground is high and 
the sewers very deep the grades should, of course, 
be determined with reference to surface conditions 
only. It sometimes happens that this general 
arrangement of the grades of home grounds, 
which is desirable on most accounts, causes water 
from melting snow to flow over the sidewalk in 
the winter time, where it may freeze and be dan- 
gerous to pedestrians. A slight depression of the 
lot away from the sidewalk and then an ascent 
toward the house would usually remedy this diffi- 
culty, and also make the house appear higher. 
Sometimes, however, a pipe should be placed 
underneath the sidewalk to allow water to reach 
the street from inside of the lot line. The aim in 
surface drainage should always be to keep the 
traveled portions of the street in the most perfect 
condition for use. The quick removal of surplus 
water from sidewalks, crossings, and roadways 
will help to insure this result." 



EDGES OF WALKS 193 

These remarks concerning the curbings and 
hard edges of city streets may also be applied to 
walks and drives in small grounds. Fig. 170, for 
example, shows the common method of treating 
the edge of a walk, by making a sharp and sheer 
elevation. This edge needs constant trimming, 
else it becomes unshapely; and this trimming 
tends to widen the walk. For general purposes, 
a border, like that shown in Fig. 171, is better. 
The sod rolls over until it meets the walk, and the 
lawn-mower is able to keep it in condition. If 
it becomes more or less rough and irregular, it is 
pounded down. 

If it is thought necessary to trim the edges of 
walks and drives, then one of the various kinds 
of sod -cutters which are sold by dealers may be 
used for the purpose, or an old hoe may have its 
shank straightened and the corners of the blade 
rounded off, as shown in Fig. 172, and this will 
answer all purposes of the common sod -cutter ; 
or, a sharp, straight -edged spade may sometimes 
be used. The loose overhanging grass on these 
edges is ordinarily cut by large shears made for 
the purpose. 

Walks and drives should be laid in such direc- 
tion that they will tend to di-ain themselves ; but 
if it is necessary to have gutters, these should be 
deep and sharp at the bottom, for the water then 
draws together and tends to keep the gutter clean. 
A shallow and rounded gutter does not clean 

M 



194 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



itself; it is very apt to fill with weeds, and ve- 
hicles often drive in it. Fig. 173 shows a catch- 
basin at the left of a walk or drive, and the tile 
laid underneath for the purpose of carrying away 
the surface water. 

The best materials for walks are cement, or 
artificial stone, and flagging. In many soils, how- 
ever, there is enough binding material in the land 




170. The common type of Dorder for 
walk or drive. 




171. A better border. 




172. Sod cutter. 



to make a good walk without the addition of any 
other material. Gravel, cinders, ashes, and the 
like, are nearly always inadvisable, for they are 
apt to be loose in dry weather and sticky in wet 
weather. In the laying of artificial stone, it is 
very important that the walk be well drained by 
a layer of a foot or two of broken stone or brick- 



MAKING THE PLAN 195 

bats, unless the walk is upon loose and leachy 
land. In back yards, it is often best not to have 
any well-defined walk. A ramble across the sod 
may be as good. For a back walk, over which 
deliverymen are to travel, one of the very best 
means is to sink a foot -wide plank into the land 
on a level with the surface of the sod; and it is 
not necessary that the walk be perfectly straight. 
These walks do not interfere with the work of the 
lawn mower, and they take care of themselves. 
When the plank rots, at the expiration of five 
to ten years, the plank is taken up and another 




V 



173. Draining the gutter. 

one dropped in its place. This ordinarily makes 
the best kind of a walk alongside a rear border. 

Making the plan. — It is often desirable to have 
a definite plan on paper for the location of the 
leading features of the place. These features are 
the residence, the out -houses, the walks and 
drives, the border planting, flower-garden, vege- 
table garden and fruit garden. It should not be 
expected that the map plan can be followed in 
every detail, but it will serve as a general guide; 
and if it is made upon a large enough scale, the 
different kinds of plants can be located in their 



196 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



proper positions, and a record of the place be 
kept. It is nearly alwaj^s unsatisfactory, for both 
owner and designer, if a plan of the place is made 
without a personal inspection of the area. Lines 
which look well upon a map may not adjust them- 
selves readily to the varying contours of the place 
itself, and the location of the features inside the 





174. Diagram of a back yard. 



175. Plan of a rough area. 



place w^ill depend also in a very large measure 
upon the objects which lie outside it. For ex- 
ample, all interesting and bold views should be 
brought into the place, and all unsightly objects 
in the immediate vicinity should be planted out. 
Fig. 174 illustrates a plan of a back yard of a 
narrow city lot, showing the heavy border plant- 
ing of trees and shrubs, with the skirting border 
of flowers. In the front are two large trees which 



MAPS AND PLANS 197 

are desired for shade. It will readily be seen from 
this plan how extensive the area for flowers be- 
comes when they are placed upon such a devious 
border. More color effect can be got from such 
an arrangement of the flowers than could be 
secured if the whole area were planted to flower- 
beds. Fig. 175 illustrates a map plan of a very 
rough piece of ground. The sides of the place 
are high, and it becomes necessary to carry a walk 
through the middle area; and upon either side of 
the front, it skirts the banks. Such a plan is 
usually unsightly on paper, but may nevertheless 
fit special cases very well. The plan is inserted 
here for the purpose of illustrating the fact that a 
plan which will work upon the ground does not 
necessarih' work upon a map. In charting a place, 
it is important to locate the points from which the 
walks are to start, and at which they are to emerge 
from the grounds. These two points are then 
joined bj- direct and simple curves, and alongside 
the walks, especially in angles or bold curves, 
planting may be inserted. 

A suggestion for school premises upon a four- 
corners, and which the pupils enter from three 
directions, is made in Fig. 176. The two play- 
grounds are separated by a broken group of 
bushes extending from the building to the rear 
boundary; but in general, the spaces are kept 
open, and the heavy border -masses clothe the 
place and make it home -like. The lineal extent 



198 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



of the group margins is astonishingly large, and 
along all these margins flowers may be planted, if 
desired . 

If there is only six feet between a school -house 
and the fence, there is still room for a border of 
shrubs. This border should be between the walk 



_J I 



Ho&el 




176. Suggestion for a school-ground upon a four corners. 

and the fence, — on the very boundary, — not be- 
tween the walk and the building, for in the latter 
case the planting divides the premises and weakens 
the effect. A space two feet wide will allow of 
an irregular wall of bushes; and if the area is 
one hundred feet long, thirty to fifty kinds of 
shrubs and flowers can be grown to perfection, 



SCHOOL GROUNDS 199 

and the school -grounds will be practically no 
smaller for the plantation. In country districts 
and large grounds, effects like that in Fig. 146 
can be obtained with little trouble. If there is no 
money with which to buy shrubs, they can be got 
from adjacent woods and fields and gardens; and 
such plants usually thrive best, because they are 
hardy and well adapted to the region. One week's 
well directed work in each year, by one man, 
coupled with donations of plants from private 
yards, could make every school -yard in the land 
a little paradise. 

Making a lawn. — The first thing to do in mak- 
ing a lawn is to establish the proper grade. This 
should be done with the greatest care, from the 
fact that when a lawn is once made, its level and 
contour should never be changed. The next im- 
portant step is to prepare the ground deeply and 
thoroughly. The permanence of the sod will 
depend very largely upon the richness and prepa- 
ration of the soil in the beginning. The soil 
should be deep and porous, so that the roots will 
strike far into it, and be enabled thereby to with- 
stand droughts and cold winters. The best means 
of deepening the soil, as already explained, is by 
tile -draining, but it can also be done by the use 
of the subsoil plow and by trenching. Since 
the lawn cannot be refitted, however, the subsoil 
is apt to fall back into a hard-pan in a few years 
if it has been subsoiled or trenched, whereas a 



200 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

tile drain affords a permanent amelioration of the 
under soil. Soils which are naturally loose and 
porous may not need this extra attention. In 
fact, lands which are very loose and sandy may 
require to be packed or cemented rather than 
loosened. One of the best means of doing this 
is to fill them with humus, so that the water will 
not leach through them rapidly. Nearly all lands 
which are designed for lawns are greatlj^ benefited 
by heavy dressings of manure thoroughly worked 
into them in the beginning. 

The first grading operation is the plowing of 
the surface. If the area is large enough to admit 
a team, the surface is worked down by means 
of harrows of various kinds. Afterwards it is 
leveled by means of shovels and hoes, and finally 
by garden rakes. The more finely and completely 
the soil is pulverized, the quicker the lawn may be 
obtained, and the more permanent are the results. 

The best grass for the body or foundation of 
lawns in the North is June -grass or Kentucky 
blue grass (Poa pratensis) . Inasmuch as we de- 
sire to obtain many very fine stalks of grass 
rather than a few large ones, it is essential that 
the seed be sown very thick. Pains should also 
be taken to distribute the seed evenly over the 
area, thereby avoiding bare and weedy spots. 
From three to four bushels to the acre is the 
ordinary application of grass seed. The question 
as to whether white clover or other seed should 



MAKING A LAWN 201 

be sown with the grass seed, is very largely a 
personal one, depending upon whether the owner 
wants white clover in his lawn or not. Some 
persons like it, and others do not. If it is de- 
sired, it may be sown directly after the grass 
seed is sown, at the rate of one to three quarts 
to the acre. For particular purposes and for 
personal tastes, various other grasses may be used 
for lawns. Various kinds of lawn mixtures are 
upon the market. 

In most cases, the June- grass germinates and 
grows somewhat slowl}', and it is generally advis- 
able to sow four or five quarts of timothy grass to 
the acre with the June -grass seed. The timoth}^ 
comes on quickly and makes a green the first year, 
and the June- grass soon crowds it out. It is not 
advisable, as a rule, to sow grain in the lawn as a 
nurse to the grass. If the land is well prepared 
and the seed is sown in the cool part of the year, 
the grass ought to grow much better without the 
other crops than with them. Lands which are 
hard and lacking in nitrogen may be benefited if 
four or five quarts of crimson clover are sown with 
the grass seed. This will make a green the first 
year, and will break up the subsoil by its deep 
roots and supply nitrogen, and being an an- 
nual plant it does not become troublesome. In 
the southern states, where June -grass does not 
thrive, Bermuda -grass is the leading species used 
for lawns; although there are two or three others. 



202 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

like the goose-grass of Florida, which may be used 
in special localities. 

The lawn should be seeded when the land is 
moist and the weather comparatively cool. It is 
ordinarily most advisable to grade the lawn in late 
summer or early fall, because the land is then 
comparatively dry and can be moved cheaply. 
The surface can also be got in condition, per- 
haps, for sowing late in September or early in 
October in the North; or, if the surface has re- 
quired much filling, it is well to leave it in a 
somewhat unfinished state until spring, in order 
that the soft places may settle and then be refilled 
before the seeding is done. If the seed can be 
sown early in the fall, before the rains come, 
the grass should be large enough, except in 
northernmost localities, to withstand the winter; 
but it is generally most desirable to sow in very 
early spring. If the land has been thoroughly 
prepared in the fall, the seed may be sown on 
one of the late light snows in spring, and as the 
snow melts the seed is carried into the land, and 
germinates very quickly. If the seed is sown 
when the land is loose and workable, it should be 
raked in; and if the weather promises to be dry, 
perhaps the surface should be rolled. 

The lawn will ordinarily produce a heavy crop 
of weeds the first year, especially if much stable 
manure has been used. The weeds need not be 
pulled, unless such vicious inti^uders as docks or 



WEEDS IN LAWNS 203 

other perennial plants gain a foothold; but the 
area should be mown frequently with a lawn- 
mower. The weeds, being annuals, will die at the 
approach of cold, and they are kept down by the 
use of the lawn-mower, while the grass is not 
injured. As soon as the grass begins to fill the 
land, the weeds are crowded out. It rarelj^ 
happens that every portion of the lawn will have 
an equal catch of grass. The bare or sparsely 
seeded places should be sown again every fall and 
spring until the lawn is finally complete. 

Lawns which have a heavy cover of sod are 
rarely troubled with weeds. It is commonly said 
that weeds run out the grass; the fact is that grass 
is run out by poor soil, insufficient seeding, care- 
less preparation of the land, or some other fault, 
and the weeds take the opportunity to fill the 
vacant places. The proper way to keep the weeds 
out of the lawn, therefore, is not primarily to pull 
the weeds, but to put in more grass. If a dande- 
lion is pulled, the hole must be filled or some weed 
may grow therein. The remedy, therefore, is to 
rake over the thin places vigorously with a steel 
garden rake, apply commercial fertilizers, and sow 
more grass seed; and this, as a rule, will correct 
the difficulty. Lawns of several acres which be- 
come thin and mossy may be treated in essentially 
the same way by dragging them with a spike-tooth 
harrow in early spring as soon as the land is 
dry enough to hold a team. Chemical fertilizers 



204 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

and grass seed are now sown liberally, and the 
area is perhaps dragged again, although this is not 
always essential; and then the roller is applied to 
bring the surface into a smooth condition. To 
plow up these poor lawns is to renew all the battle 
with weeds, and really to make no progress; for, 
so long as the contour is correct, the lawn may be 
repaired by these surface applications. If lawns 
are to be kept in the very best condition it is 
usually necessary, in this country, to patch them 
ever}' year by this method of re -seeding. 

The mowing of the lawn should begin as soon 
as the grass is tall enough in the spring, and con- 
tinue at the necessary intervals throughout the 
summer. The most frequent mowings are needed 
early in the season, when the grass is growing 
rapidly. If it is mown frequently — say once or 
twice a week — in the periods of most vigorous 
growth, it will not be necessary to rake off the 
mowings. In fact, it is preferable to leave the 
grass upon the lawn, to be driven into the surface 
by the rains and to afford a mulch. It is only 
when the lawn has been neglected and the grass 
has got so high that it becomes unsightly upon the 
lawn, that it is necessary to take it off. The grass 
should be rather long when it goes into the winter ^ 
The last two months of open weather are times in 
which the grass makes comparatively small growth, 
and it tends to lop down and to cover the surface 
densely, which it should be allowed to do. The 



RAKING LAWNS 205 

best lawn mowers, in the writer's opinion, are those 
with large wheels and which cut very wide swaths. 
In his own practice, he uses no machine which 
cuts less than eighteen inches. 

As a rule, it is not necessary to rake the leaves 
off lawns in the fall. They afford an excellent 
mulch, and during the autumn months the leaves 
upon the lawn are among the handsomest features 
of the landscape. The leaves generally blow off 
after a time, and if the place has been constructed 
with an open center and heavily planted sides, 
the leaves will be caught in these masses of trees 
and shrubs and there afford an excellent mulch. 
The ideal landscape planting, therefore, takes care 
of itself to a very large extent. It is bad economy 
to burn the leaves, especially if one has her- 
baceous borders, roses and other plants which 
need a mulch. When the leaves are taken off the 
borders in the spring, they should be piled with 
the manure or other refuse and there allow to pass 
into compost. (Pages 115, 116.) 

If the land has been well prepared in the begin- 
ning, it is ordinarily unnecessary to cover the 
lawn with manure in the fall. The common prac- 
tice of covering grass with manure should be dis- 
couraged because the material is unsightly and 
unsavory, and the same results can be got with 
the use of commercial fertilizers and by not raking 
the lawn too clean of the mowings of the grass. 

The common watering of lawns by means of 



206 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

lawn sprinklers usually does more harm than good. 
This results from the fact that the watering is 
generally done in clear weather, and the water is 
thrown through the air in very fine spray, so that 
a considerable part of it is lost in vapor. The 
ground is also hot, and the water does not pass 
deep into the soil. If the lawn is watered at all, 
it should be soaked; turn on the hose at nightfall 
and let it run until the land is wet as deep as 
it is dry, then move the hose to another place. 
A thorough soaking like this, once or twice in a 
dry summer, will do more good than sprinkling 
every day. If the land is deeply prepared in the 
first place, so that the roots strike far into the 
soil, there is rarely need of watering unless the 
place is arid or the season unusually dry. The 
surface watering by means of lawn sprinklers 
engenders a tendency for the roots to start near 
the surface, and therefore the more the lawn is 
watered, the greater is the necessity for it. 

Every spring the lawn should be . firmed by 
means of a roller, or if the area is small, by 
means of a pounder or the back of a spade in the 
hands of a vigorous man. The lawn-mower itself 
tends to pack the surface. If there are little 
irregularities in the surface, caused by depres- 
sions of an inch or so, and the highest places 
are not above the contour -line of the lawn, the 
surface may be brought to level by spreading 
fine, mellow soil over it, thereby filling up the 



SODDING LAWNS 207 

depressions. The grass will quickly grow through 
this soil. 

Persons who desire to get a lawn very quickly 
may sod the area rather than seed it. Sodding, 
however, is expensive, and is to be used only about 
the borders of the place, near buildings, or in 
areas in which the owner can afford to expend 
considerable money. The best sod is that which 
is secured from an old pasture, and for two or 
three reasons. In the first place, it is the right 
kind of grass, the June -grass being the 'species 
which oftenest runs into pastures and crowds out 
other plants. Again, it has been so closely eaten 
down, especially if it has been pastured bj^ sheep, 
that it has made a very dense and well -filled sod, 
which can be rolled up in thin layers. In the 
third place, the surface soil in such old pastures is 
likely to be rich from the droppings of animals. 

In taking sod, it is important that it be cut 
ver}^ thin. An inch and a half thick is usually 
ample. It is ordinarily rolled up in strips which 
are a foot wide and of any length which will 
allow the rolls to be handled by one or two men. 
A foot -wide board is laid upon the turf, and 
the sod cut along either edge of it. One person 
then stands upon the strip of sod and rolls it to- 
wards himself while another cuts it loose with a 
spade, as shown in Fig. 177. When the sod is 
laid, it is unrolled upon the land and then firmly 
beaten down. Land which is to be sodded should 



208 



THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



be soft on top, so that the sod can be well pounded 
into it. If the sod is not well pounded down, it 
will settle unevenly and present a bad surface, 
and will also dry out, and perhaps not live through 
a dry spell. It is almost impossible to pound 
down sod too firm. If the land is freshly plowed, 
it is important that the borders which are sodded 
be an inch or two lower than the adjacent land, 
because that land will settle in the course of a 




177. Cuttiug sod. 

few weeks. If it is necessary to do sodding in 
a dry time, the sod may be covered from a half 
inch to an inch deep with fine, mellow soil as a 
mulch, to prevent it from drying out. The grass 
will grow through this soil without difficulty. 
Upon terraces and steep banks, the sod may be 
held in place by driving wooden pegs through it. 

Lawns may be sown with pieces of sods rather 
than with seeds. Sods may be cut up into bits 
an inch or two square and these can be scattered 



SODDING LAWNS 



209 



broadcast over the area and rolled into the land. 
While it is preferable that these pieces should lie 
right side up, it is not necessary that they should, 
if they are cut thin, and if they are sown when 
the weather is cool and moist. Sowing pieces of 
sod is a most excellent practice in lands in which 
it is difficult to secure a catch from seed. 




. • >' • i' ,' V^^''ppm7?Fp^w>^T-tf III ' mTB iV/i/! / ^ *./jV( ! >O K' ^,'i'i^ )' ' .'j ",M' ^'777VS '' I" , '-? v "' ;i ' " Hf ; ■ -< ; 



178. Economical sodding. 

An " economical sodding" is described in Ameri- 
can Garden (Fig. 178): "To obtain sufficient 
sod of suitable quality for covering terrace -slopes 
or small blocks that for any reason cannot well be 
seeded, is often a difficult matter. In the accom- 
panying illustration we show how a surface of sod 
may be used to good advantage over a larger area 
than its real measurement represents. This is 
done by laying the sods, cut in strips from six to 
ten inches wide, in lines and cross -lines, and after 
filling the spaces with good soil, sowing these 
spaces with grass -seed. Should the catch of seed 
for any reason be poor, the sod of the strips will 
tend to spread over the spaces between them, and 



210 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 

failure to obtain a good sward within a reasonable 
time is almost out of the question. On the other 
hand, if one needs sod and has no place from 
which to cut it except the lawn, by taking up 
blocks of sod, leaving strips and cross -strips, and 
treating the surface as described above, the bare 
places left are soon covered with green." 

Under trees, and in other shady places, it may 
be necessary to cover the ground with something 
else than grass. Good plants for such uses are 
periwinkle ( Vinca minor, an evergreen trailer, 
often called "running myrtle"), monej^wort {Ly- 
simacJiia nummular ia) , lily -of -the -valley, and 
various kinds of sedge or carex. 



Section III 



PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

In choosing the kinds of plants, the gardener 
should carefully distinguish two categories, — those 
to compose the structural masses and design of 
the place, and those which are to be used for mere 
ornament. The chief merits to be sought in the 
former are good foliage, pleasing form and va- 
rious habit, shades of green, and color of winter 
twigs. The merits of the latter lie chiefly in 
flowers or colored foliage. 

Each of these categories should be again di- 
vided. Of plants for the main design, there 
may be a list of trees for a windbreak, another of 
trees for shade, another of shrubs for screens or 
heavy plantings, another for the lighter side plant- 
ings, and another for incidental masses about the 
buildings or on the lawn, and perhaps another of 
vines for porches and arbors and evergreens, and 
also for hedges. The lists on pages 221 to 240 
will ^9 «i""'gestive. 

Plants used for mere embellishment or orna- 
mentation ma}' be ranged into categories for 
permanent herbaceous borders, for display beds, 
ribbon edgings, annuals for temporary effects, 

(2]l) 



212 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

foliage beds, plants for adding color and emphasis 
to the shrubbery masses, and plants desired to be 
grown as isolated specimens or as curiosities. 

It is always legitimate, and, in fact, desirable, 
to plant for immediate effect. One may plant 
very thickly of rapid -growing trees and shrubs 
for this purpose. It is a fact, however, that very 
rapid -growing trees usually lack strong or artis- 
tic character. Other and better trees should be 
planted with them, and the insipid and rapid- 
growing kinds be gradually removed. These re- 
marks apply with particular force to summer re- 
sorts and pleasure grounds, at which there is a 
great tendency to secure quick effects by profuse 
planting of willows and poplars. These trees al- 
ways look cheap and characterless. Maples, elms, 
oaks, catalpas, or other trees, should be planted 
with the willows or poplars, and eventually only 
an occasional specimen of the nurse -planted wil- 
lows and poplars should remain. That is, in the 
completed picture, willows, poplars and the like, 
should be only incidents. (See, also, pages 152, 
153.) 

Some of the silver or white -leaved poplars pro- 
duce the most striking contrasts of foliage, espe- 
cially if set near darker trees, and for this reason 
they are much desired by many planters. Bolle's 
poplar {Fopuliis Bolleana of the nurseries) is one 
of the best of these trees. Its habit is something 
like that of the Lombardy. The upper surface of 



IMMEDIATE EFFECTS 213 

the deeply lobed leaves is dark, dull green, while 
the under surface is almost snowy white. Such 
emphatic trees as this should generally be par- 
tially obscured by planting them amongst other 
trees, so that they appear to mix with the other 
foliage; or else they should be seen at some dis- 
tance. Other varieties of the common white pop- 
lar or abele are occasionally useful, although most 
of them sprout badly and may become a nuisance. 
But the planting of these immodest trees is so 
likel}' to be overdone that I scarcely dare recom- 
mend them, although, when skilfully used, they 
may be made to produce most excellent effects. 
If any reader has a particular fondness for trees 
of this class (or any others with woolly -white 
foliage) and if he has only an ordinary city lot or 
farm -yard to ornament, let him reduce his desires 
to a single tree, and then if that tree is planted 
in the interior of a group of other trees, no 
harm can result! 

However much the planter may plan for imme- 
diate effects, the beauty of trees and shrubs comes 
with maturity and age, and this beauty is often 
delayed, or even obliterated, by shearing and ex- 
cessive heading -back. At first, bushes are stiff 
and erect, but when they obtain their full charac- 
ter they droop or roll over to meet the sward. 
Some bushes make mounds of green much sooner 
than others which may be even closely related. 
Thus the common yellow- bell, Forsythia viridis- 



214 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

siwa, remains stiff and hard for some years, 
whereas F. suspensa makes a rolling heap of green 
in two or three years. Quick, informal effects can 
also be obtained by the use of Hall's Japanese 
honeysuckle (Lonicera Halliana of nurserymen), 
an evergreen in the South and holding its leaves 
until midwinter or later in the North. It may be 
used for covering a rock, a pile of rubbish, a 
stump (Fig. 179), to fill a corner against a foun- 
dation, or it may be trained on a porch or arbor. 
There is a form with yellow -veined leaves. Bosa 
Wiclmriana, and some of the dewberries, are use- 
ful for covering rough places. 

Many vines, which are commonly used for 
porches and arbors, may be used also for the bor- 
ders of shrub -plantations and for covering rough 
banks and rocks. Such vines, among others, are 
various kinds of clematis, Virginia creeper, ac- 
tinidia, akebia, trumpet creeper, periploca, bitter- 
sweet {Bolanum Dulcamara)^ wax -work (Celas- 
trus scandens) . 

For hedges, either evergreens or deciduous trees 
and shrubs may be used. Of common evergreens, 
the various kinds of arborvitae, native hemlock, 
and the retinosporas, may be used. They stand 
cutting well. Privet (particularly the so-called 
Californian), mahonia, box and Citrus trifoliata 
are also either evergreen or partially so, depending 
somewhat upon the region in which they are 
grown. Mahonia and box are true evergreens, and 




;-f!fi«^» 






179. Stump covered with Japanese honeysuckle. 



216^ PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

are also adapted for low hedges and edgings. The 
citrus is hard}' as far north as Washington in pro- 
tected places, and in some cases even farther. 
For hedges, plants should be set as close as two 
feet or less, and they should be rigidly headed -in 
even from the first, in order to develop a thick bot- 
tom growth. For deciduous hedges, osage orange, 
buckthorn, pyracantha, locust, and various other 
plants may be used. 

Coniferous evergreens — as pines, spruces, cedars 
— may be planted in fall, spring or summer. There 
is much diiference of opinion as to the proper sea- 
son, which only means that the transplanting may 
be done in various seasons. The writer has had 
best success in transplanting them late in spring, 
when the new growth is beginning, especially 
when he can choose a rainy or moist time. As a 
rule, evergreens are not trimmed upon being trans- 
planted; but if the top seems to be very large in 
proportion to the root, the branches may be 
headed -in a few inches. In transplanting ever- 
greens from the wild into sunny places, it is well 
to choose those which naturally grow in the sun. 
This is particularly important with the hemlock. 

The verdurous beauty of spruces, hemlocks and 
firs may be much prolonged if a few inches of the 
tips of the strongest branches be cut off every 
year or two. This treatment induces a thick 
growth of the top, while it is not severe enough to 
reduce the tree to a formal figure. Even the 



PLANTING HINTS 217 

leader may be cut if the tree tends to grow too 
tall and open, and a new leader will soon take its 
place. Spruces which have become very open and 
ragged may be severely headed -back, and the 
interior of the top will finally feather out and fill 
up. Of course, the lower limbs should never be 
removed from spruces, for the beauty of the tree 
lies in its pyramidal and half -formal figure. 

A few trees and shrubs demand a special prep- 
aration of the land. This is true of the hardy 
rhododendrons, and, to some extent, of kalmias 
and andromedas (pages 227, 231). They thrive 
best in a soil containing much leaf -mold. It is 
a good practice to remove the soil to a depth of 
two feet and fill the place with woods earth. In 
the North, rhododendrons should be partially 
screened from winter and spring suns by planting 
them near or among deciduous trees. 

In the planting of any kind of trees, it is well 
to remember that nurserj' - grown specimens gen- 
erally transplant more readily and thrive better 
than trees taken from the wild; and this is par- 
ticularly true if the stock was transplanted in the 
nursery. Trees which transplant with difficult}^ 
as the papaw or asimina, and some nut trees, may 
be prepared for removal by cutting some of their 
roots, — and especially the tap-root, if they have 
such, — a year or two in advance. 

In making borders of flowers, the most satisfac- 
tory results are obtained if a large clump of each 




219 

kind or variety is grown. 
Some of the most effective 
])orders are those which 
are filled with miscellan- 
eous perennial herbs taken 
at odd times from fields 
and woods. The her- 
baceous border is one of 
the most flexible parts of 
grounds, since it has no 
regular or formal design. 
Allow ample space for each 
perennial root,— often as 
much as three or four 
square feet,— and then if 
the space is not filled the 
first year or two, scatter 
over the area seeds of pop- 
pies, sweet peas, asters, 
gilias. alyssum, or other an- 
nuals. Prepare the ground 
well in the beginning, tak- 
ing particular care to make 
it deep, and mulch liberally 
every fall. Even peren- 
nials usually bloom better 
when not more than two or 
three years planted, and 
the grower must expect, 
therefore, to renew or 



220 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

change the clumps from time to time, if they show 
signs of failing. Figs. 180-182, from Long (Pop- 
ular Gardening, i., 17, 18, from which journal, 
now discontinued many pictures in this volume 
are taken), suggest methods of making such bor- 
ders. They are on a scale of ten feet to the inch. 
The entire surface is tilled, and the irregular dia- 
grams designate the sizes of the clumps. The 
diagrams containing no names are to be filled 
with bulbs, annuals and tender plants. 

LIST OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS WHICH ABE 
HABDY IN CENTRAL MICHIGAN 

The following list was made some years ago for 
use in the author's classes in the Agricultural Col- 
lege of Michigan. It is now revised, and is be- 
lieved to contain the greater part of the desirable 
trees and shrubs which are hardy in the northern- 
most states, although it is not intended to be 
complete. The notes were originall}- the result of 
several years' observation upon the large collection 
of plants growing upon the grounds of the Agri-' 
cultural College, at Lansing. The winters there 
are severe, the thermometer occasionally register- 
ing twenty degrees below zero, and sometimes even 
a lower temperature. In the following list the 
plants are arranged somewhat in the order of 
merit, as they appeal to the author. The species 
of each genus are intended to be strictly so ar- 
ranged. The home-maker will know which of the 
native trees of his region are valuable for planting 



HARDY TREES 221 

as single specimens on the lawn or roadside for 
purposes of shade ; some of the best for this pur- 
pose in the following list are marked with a dag- 
ger (t). Those plants marked with an asterisk 
(*) are native to Michigan. 

I. Trees for Windbreaks, or Shelter Belts. 

White pine, Pinus Strohus* 
Austrian pine, P. Austriaca. 
Scotch pine, P. sylvcstris. 
Red pine, P. resinosa.* 
Norway spruce, Picea excelsa. 
Any of the rapidly growing, native forest trees, especially; 
American elm, Ulmus Americana.^'t 
Sugar maple, Acer saccharinum^t and var. nigrum.*^ 
Basswood, Tilia Americana *'t 
Cottonwood, Populus moniUfera.* 
Balsam poplar, P. halsamifera.* 
Balm of Gilead, P. halsar.iifera var. candicans* 
Wild black cherry, Prunus serotina* 
Box- elder, Negundo aceroides.* 

II. Trees for Groups or Single Specimens. 
A. Deciduous Trees. 

Norway maple, Acer platanoides ."[ 

One of the finest trees for single lawn specimens, especially in tranquil 
scenes. It droops too much and is too low-headed for roadside planting. 
Black sugar maple, A. saccharinuni var. nigrum *'\ 

Darker and softer in aspect than the ordinary sugar maple. 
Sugar maple, A. saccharinuni. ^'\ 

This and the last are the best roadside trees. 
Wier's cut-leaved silver maple, A. dasycarpum, hort. var. 

Light and graceful. Especially desirable for pleasure grounds. 
Silver maple, A. dasycarpum. ^t 

Desirable for water-courses and for grouping. Succeeds on both 
wet and dry lands. 



222 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Red, soft, or swamp maple, A. ruhrum* 

Valuable for its spring and autumn colors, and for variety in grouping. 

Sycamore maple, A. Pseudo-platanus. 

A slow grower, to be tised mostly as single specimens. 

American elm, Ulmus Americana .^t 

One of the most graceful and variable of trees; useful for many 
purposes. 

Cork elm, U. racemosa/'^ 

Softer in aspect than the last, and more picturesque in winter, having 
prominent ridges of bark on its branches. Slow grower. 

Red, or slippery elm, U. fulva.* 

Occasionally useful in a group or shelter-belt. A stiff and straggling 
grower. 

European silver linden. Til ia argentea and varieties {T.alba).t 
Very handsome. Leaves silvery white beneath. Among others, is a 
weeping variety. 

American linden or basswood, Tilia Americana. ^t 

Very valuable for single trees on large lawns, or for roadsides. 

European linden, T. Europoea, and varieties.! 
Has the general character of the American basswood. 

Tulip tree or whitewood, Liriodendron TuUpifera^f 

Valuable for the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Unique in 
foliage and flower. 

Cucumber tree, MagyioUa acuminata.'\ 
Not reliable north of Lansing. Handsome. 

Yellow- wood, or Virgilia, Cladrastis tinctoria. 
The finest hardy flowering tree. 

Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor.*t 

A very desirable tree, usually neglected. Very picturesque in winter. 
The oaks are slow growers and usually transplant with difficulty. 
Natural specimens are most valuable. A large, well-grown oak is one 
of the grandest of trees. 

Bur oak, Q. macrocarpa*t 

Chestnut oak, Q. Prinus,*t and especially the common var. 

acuminata (or Q. Muhlenbergii] .^t 
White oak, Q. alba^f 
Shingle oak, Q. imbricaria^f 



r 



HARDY TREES 223 

Scarlet oak, Q. coccinea.^'t 

This and the next two are glossy-leaved, and are desirable for gay 
scenes. 
Black oak, Q. tinGtoria*'\ 
Red oak, Q. ruhra.^t 

Pepperidge or gum-tree, Nifssa niultiflora* 

One of the oddest and most picturesque of our native trees. Espe- 
cially attractive in winter. Foliage brilliant red in autumn. Most 
suitable for low lands. 

Horse chestnut, ^sculus Hipjmcastanum.t 
Useful for single specimens and roadsides. 

Showy catalpa, Catalpa speciosa.f 

Very dark, soft-foliaged tree of small to medium size. Showy in 
flower. To be used as single specimens. 

Smaller catalpa, C. bignonioides .f 

Less showy than the last, blooming a week or two later. Less hardy. 

Black ash, Fraxinus samhiicifolia.*^ 

One of the best of the light leaved trees. Does well on dry soils, 
although native to swamps. Not appreciated. 

White ash, F. Americana. *'\ 

Kentucky cofifee-tree, Crymnocladus Canadensis.* 

Light and graceful. Unique in winter. 
Bitter-nut, Hicoria minima, or Carija amara.* 

Much like black ash in aspect. Not appreciated. 
Hickory, Hicoria ovata, or Carya alba, and others.* 

Useful in remote groups or belts. 
Cut- leaved weeping birch, Betula alba, hort. var. 

The finest of gay trees. To be used sparingly as single specimens. 
Cut- leaved birch, B. alba, hort. var. 
European birch, B. alba. 
American white birch, B. populifolia. 
Paper, or Canoe birch, B. papyrifera.* 
Purple birch, B. alba, hort. var. 

Cherry birch, B. lenta.* 

Well grown specimens resemble the sweet cherry. Both this and the 
next make attractive light leaved trees. They are not appreciated. 

Yellow birch, B. lutea.* 



224 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Aspen, Populus tremuloides* 

Very valuable when well grown. Too much neglected. Most of the 
poplars are suitable for pleasure grounds, and as nurses for slower 
growing and more emphatic trees. (Pages 152, 153, 213.) 
Large-toothed aspen, P. gra7ididentata* 

Unique in summer color. Heavier in aspect than the last. Old trees 
become ragged. 
Weeping poplar, P. grandklentata, hort. var. pendula. 

An odd, small tree, suitable f6r small places, but, like all weeping 
trees, apt to be planted too freely. 
Cottonwood, P. Dionilifcra* 

Desirable in a group or near water. The staminate specimens, only, 
should be planted if possible, as the cotton of the seed-pods is dis- 
agreeable when carried by winds. 
Balm of Gilead, P. haJsamifera^ and var. candicans* 

Desirable for remote groups or belts. Foliage not pleasant in color. 

Lombardy poplar, P. nigra, var. Italica. 

Desirable for certain piirposes, but used too indiscriminately. It is 
apt to be short-lived in this climate. 
Bolle's poplar, P. alba, var. Bolleana. 

Habit much like the Lombardy. Leaves curiously lobed, very white be 
neath, making a pleasant contrast. Evidently hardy at Lansing. (P. 212.) 

Locust, Eohinia Pseudacacia.'t 

Should be planted at some distance from the dwelling. Useful in 

grouping. Attractive in flower. Handsome as single specimens when 

young. 
Honey locust, Gleditschia triacanthos *\ 

Like the last, this should be planted rather remote from the residence, 
or near the borders. The foliage of both is light. 
Beech, Fagus ferruginea*'\ 

Specimens which are symmetrically developed are among our best 
lawn trees. Pictui'esque in winter. 
Chestnut, Castanea vescaf and var. Americana. *'t 
Plane or Buttonwood, Platanus occidentalism^ 

Young or middle-aged trees are:soft and pleasant in aspect, but they 
soon become thin and ragged below. Most desirable in belts. Unique 
in winter. 

Sassafras, Sassafras officmalismf 

Suitable in the borders of groups or for single specimens. Peculiar 
in winter. Too much neglected. 



HARDY TREES 225 

Maiden-hair tree, Ginkgo hiloha. 

Very odd and striking. To be used for single specimens. 
Rowan or European mountain ash, Fyrus Aucuparia. 

Peach- leaved willow, Salix amygdaloides.* 

Very handsome small tree, deserving more attention. This and the 
next valuable in low places or along water courses. 

Black willow, S. nigra* 

Weeping willow, S. Bdbylonica. 

To be planted sparingly, 'preferably near water. The sort known as 
the Wisconsin weeping willow appears to be much hardier than the 
common type. 

White willow, S. alba, and various varieties, one of which 
is the golden willow. 
May be used sparingly. Tree willows are most valuable, as a rule, when 
used for temporary plantations or as nurses for better trees. (P. 212.) 

Wild black cherry, Prunus serotina* 

Nettle-tree, Celtis occidentalis.* 

Box-elder, Negundo aceroides* 

Very hardy and rapid-growing. Much used in the West as a wind- 
break, but not strong in ornamental features. 

European larch, Larix Europcea. 

American larch or tamarack, L. Americana.* 

Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. 

Not entirely hardy at Lansing. Generally becomes scraggly after 
fifteen or twenty years. 

Butternut, Jiiglans cinerea* 

Walnut, J. nigra.* 

Ailanthus, Ailanthns glandulosus. 

A rapid grower, with large pinnate leaves. The staminate plant 
possesses a disagreeable odor when it flowers. Suckers badly. Most 
useful as a shrub. See the same under Shnabs (page 234; also Fig. 1.^)7). 

B. Coniferous Evergreens. 

Norway spruce, Picea excelsa. 

Loses much of its peculiar beauty when thirty to fifty years of age. 
(See page 217.) 

O 



226 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

White spruce, P. alba* 

One of the finest of the spruces. A more compact grower than the 
last, and not so coarse. Grows slowly. 

Oriental spruce, P. orientalis. 

Especially valuable from its habit of holding its lowest limbs. Grows 
slowly. 
Blue fir, Colorado blue spruce, P. pungens. 

In color probably the finest of the conifers. Grows slowly. Varies 
in blueness. 
Nordmann's fir, Abies Nordmanniana. 

Balsam fir, A. balsamea.* 

Loses most of its beauty in fifteen or twenty years. 

Hemlock spruce, Tsuga Canadensis * 

Young and well-grown specimens are the most graceful of our ever- 
greens. In the West, if given some protection from the sun it does bet- 
ter. Should therefore be planted near large trees. (See page 216.) 

Arbor vitse. Thuja occidentaUs .* 

Becomes unattractive after ten or fifteen years, especially on poor soils. 
Cembrian pine, Pinns Cembra. 

A very fine slow-growing tree. One of the few standard pines suit- 
able for small places. 
White pine, P. Strobus* 
Scotch pine, P. sylvestris. 

Red pine, P. resinosa* 

Vakiable in groups and belts. Not sufficiently known. Usually 
called "Norway pine." Rather heavy in expression. 

Scrub pine, P. Banksiana* 

A small tree, more picturesque than beautiful. Desirable. 

Red cedar, Jimiperus Virginiana.* 

III. Shrubs and very Small Trees, not Scandent. 
A. Deciduous, or Broad -leaved if Evergreen. 
Many rapid -growing trees may be utilized as shrubs by 
cutting them off near the ground every year, or every other 
year, and allowing young shoots to grow. Basswood, black 
ash, some of the maples, tulip tree, mulberry, and others, 
may be treated in this manner. (Fig. 157.) 




183. Spiraea hypericifolia. 



228 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Wild laurel, Ealmia latifolia. 

Ericaceoiis evergreen. Thekalmias and rhododendrons are among the 
choicest of shrubs. They require a rather peaty soil and a somewhat 
shaded situation, especially in winter (page 217). 

Rhododendron, Ehododendron Catawbiense, garden varieties. 

Styrax, Styrax Japoyiica. 

One of the most graceful of flowering shrubs. It may not be hardy 
northward. 

Common snowball, Viburnum Opulus.^ 

The cultivated sort is a native of the Old World, but the species grows 

wild in Michigan (known as High-bush Cranberry), and is worthy of 

cultivation. 
Japanese snowball, V. pUcatum (properly V. tomentosum) . 

Common lilac, Syringa viilgaris. 

Josika lilac, S. Josikcea. 

Persian lilac, S. Persica. 

Various other lilacs are also hardy and desirable. 

Mock-orange, PMladelplnis coronarius and P. grandiflorus. 

Smoke-tree, Rhus Cotinus. 

One of the best shrubs for massing. Two colors are grown. 

Dwarf sumac, R. copalUna* 

Attractive in foliage, and especially conspicuous in autumn from the 
brilliant red of its leaves. 

Sumac, smooth and hairy, R. glabra* and R. typhina.* 

Useful for the borders of large groups and belts. They may be cut 
down every year and allowed to sproiit (as in Fig. 157). The young tops 
are handsomest. R. glabra is the finer species for this purpose. 

Three-lobed spirea, Spircea trilobata. 

One of the most showy early-flowering shrubs. Excellent for massing. 

Sorbus- leaved spirea, S. sorbifolia. 

Desirable for its late blooming, — late June and early July. 

Plum-leaved spirea, S. prunifolia. 

Fortune's spirea, S. Japonica, or S. callosa. 

Thunberg's spirea, S. Tfiunbergii. 
Neat and attractive in habit. Dwarf. 

St, Peter's Wreath, S. hypericifolia (Fig. 183). 



HARDY SHRUBS 229 

Douglas' spirea, S. Douglasii. 
Blossoms late,— in July. 

Hard -hack, S. tomentosa* 

Much like the last, but less showy. 

Willow -leaved spirea, S. salicifolia* 

Various other spireas are hardy and desirable. 
Nine-bark, Physocarpus opuUfolia* {Spiroea opulifoUa). 
Exochorda, Exochorda grandlflora. 

A large and very showy shrub, producing a profusion of apple-like 
white flowers in early spring. 

Various roses. 

Hardy roses are not always desirable for the lawn. For general 
lawn purposes the older sorts.' single or semi-double, and which do not 
require high culture, are to be preferred. (See pages 148, 149.) 

Japanese rose, Bosa rugosa. 

Most excellent for lawn planting, as the foliage is thick and not 
attacked by insects (Fig. 184). 

Wild swamp rose, Bosa Car'olhia* 

Wild dwarf rose, Bosahumilis* {B. liieida of Michigan). 

Say's Rose, Bosa Sayi* 
Excellent for lawns, 

Weigela, Diervilla Japonica and other species. 
Free bloomers, very fine, in many colors. 

Dwarf buckeye, ^sculus parviflora. 

Attractive in habit, foliage and flower. Produces a large mass. 

Flowering almond, Prunus Japonica. 
Daphne, Daphne Mezereum. 

Produces rose-purple or white flowers in abundance before the leaves 
appear. Our earliest shrub in flowering. Dwarf, and should be planted 
on the edges of groups. 
Forsyth ia, Forsythia viridissima. 

Blossoms yellow, appearing before the leaves. Requires protection in 
many places. 
Drooping forsythia, F. suspensa. 

Makes an attractive mass on a bank or border. (Page 213.) 
White alder, Clethra alnifoUa. 

A very fine, hardy shrub, producing very fragrant flowers in July and 
August. Should be better known. 



230 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 







184. Rosa rugosa, from 
Japan. One of the 
best roses for lawn 
planting, because of 
its neat habit and at- 
tractive foliage. 



Sand myrtle, Leiophyllum huxifoUum. 

Hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata, hort. var. grandiflora. 

One of the best and most showy small flowering shrubs. 
Downy hydrangea, H. radiata. 

Attractive in both foliage and flower. 
Oak-leaved hydrangea, H. quercifoUa. 

This is especially valuable for its luxuriant foliage. Even if killed to 
the ground in winter, it is still worth cultivating for its strong shoots. 

Ceanothus, Ceanothus Americanus.^ 

A very small native shrtib, desirable for dry places under trees. 

Azalea, Azalea viscosa and A. nudijlora. 



HARDY SHRUBS 231 

Andromeda, Andromeda floribunda. 

A small erieaceous evergreen. Should have some protection from the 
winter sun. It may, for this purpose, be planted on the north side of 
a clump of trees (Page 217. 

Wild thorns, Cratcegus punctata * C. coccinea,* C. crus-galU,* 

and others. 
Bailey's osier, Cornus Baileyi.'^ 

The finest of the native osiers for color of twigs and foliage. 

Red -twigged osier, Cornus stolonifera* 

The red twigs are very showy in winter. Some bushes are brighter 
in color than others. 

Flowering dogwood, C. Jlorida* 

Coarse but very showy tree, desirable for borders of groups and 
belts. A red-flowered variety is on the market. 

Rose acacia, Eobinia hispida. 

Purple plum, Prunus cerasifera, hort. var. Pissardi. 
One of our most reliable purple-leaved trees. 

Sand cherry, P. pumila* and P. Besseyi. 

June -berry, Amelanchier Canadensis* and others. 
Flowers profusely in spring before the leaves appear. 

Fringe tree, Chionanthus Virgiiiica. 

Tartarian maple, Acer Tataricum. 

Attractive as a lawn specimen when grown as a shrub. The autumn 
color is very bright. 

Mountain maple, A. spicatum.* 
Very bright in autumn. 

European maple, A. campestre. 

Not generally hardy, but attractive if cut down and allowed to throw 
up new shoots. 

Tartarian honeysuckle, Lonicera Tatarica. 
One of the most chaste and comely of shrubs. 

St. John's Wort, Hypericum Kalmianum,* and H . prolificum * 
Small undershrubs, producing bright yellow flowers in profusion in 
July and August. 

Burning-bush, Euonymus atropmpureus,* 
Very attractive in fruit. 



232 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Flowering, or fragrant currant, Rihes aureum. 
Well known and popular. 

Snow -berry, Symphoricarpus racemosus ."^ 

Cultivated for its snow-white berries. 

Indian currant, Symphoricarpus vulgaris * 
Foliage delicate. Berries red. Valuable. 

Witch hazel, Hamamelis Virginiana* 

Blossoms in October and November. Unique and desirable if well 
grown. 

Elders, Samhucus racemosa* {S. piibens) and S. Canadensis.'^ 

The former, the common "red elder," is ornamental both in flower 
and fruit. S. Canadensis is desirable for its profusion of fragrant 
flowers appearing in July. 

Kerria, Eerria Japonica. 

A bramble-like shrub, producing attractive yellow single or double 
flowers from July until September. There is a variegated-leaved form. 
Good for banks and borders. Twigs vei-y green in winter. 

Japanese bramble, Rubus cratcegifolius. 

Very valuable for holding banks. Spreads rapidly. Very red in 
winter. 

Winter- berry, Ilex verticillata* 

Produces showy red berries, which persist through the winter. 
Should be massed in rather low ground. Flowers imperfect. 

Leatherwood, Dirca palustris* 

If well grown, the leatherwood makes a very neat plant. Blossoms 
appear before the leaves, but not showy. 

Button-bush, Cephalantlms occidentalis.'^ 

Blossoms in July and August. Desirable for water courses and other 
low places. 

Privet, Ligustrum vidgare, and L. ovalifolium {L. Japonicum). 
Much used for low hedges and borders. 

Barberry, Berberis vidgaris. 

Mahonia, Berberis AquifoUum. 

Evergreen. Dwarf. Needs some protection in exposed places. 

Wild crab, P. coronaria^ and P. loensis. 

Very showy while in flower, blooming after apple blossoms have 
fallen. Old specimens become picturesque in form. 



i 



HARDY BUSHES 233 

Japanese quince, Pyrus Japonica. 

An old favorite. Not hardy at Lansing. 
Chinquapin or dwarf chestnut, Castanea pumila. 
Sweet viburnum or sheep-berry, Viburnum Lentago* 
Arrow- wood, V. dentatum* 

Withe-rod, lilac viburnum, V. casainoides .* 
Other native and exotic viburnums are desirable. 

Spice-bush, Lindera Benzoin.* 

Box, Buxus sempervirens. 

A diminutive evergreen shrub, useful for edgings in cities. 
Kilmarnock willow, Salix Caprcea, hort. var. peyidida. ^ 

A very small weeping plant, usually more curious than ornamental. 

Rosemary willow, S. rosmariyiifoUa of nurserymen. 

Shining willow, S. lucida."^ 

Very desirable for the edges of water, 

Long-leaved willow, S, loHglfoJia* 

Our nari'o west-leaved native willow. Useful for banks. Apt to 
spread too rapidly. 

Fountain willow, S. purpurea. 

Pussy willow, S. discolor.* 

Attractive when massed at some distance from the residence. 

Siberian pea-tree, Caragana arhorescens. 

Small pea-tree, C. pygmcea. 

Red-bud or Judas-tree, Cercis Canadensis.* 

Produces a profusion of rose-purple pea-like flowers before the leaves 
appear. Foliage attractive. 

Mountain ash, Pyrus Aucuparia. (Page 225.) 
Service-tree, P. domestica. 

Fruit handsomer than that of the mountain ash and more persistent. 
Small tree. 

Oak-leaved mountain ash, P. hybrida. 
Small tree, deserving to be better known. 

Weeping aspen, Populus grandidentatn, hort. var. pjendula. 
(Page 224.) 

Cut-leaved alder, Alnus glutinosa, hort. var. 



234 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Wild alder, A. serrulata* 

Dwarf birch, Betula pumila.* 
Desirable for low places. 

Ailanthus, Ailanthus glandulosus . 

Most attractive when cut to the ground each year and allowed to 
sprout (Fig. 157). The young shoots give a tropical effect. For this pur- 
pose the soil should be very rich. 

Pamlownia, Paulownia imper talis . 

Of this and the following magnolias, the tops are not hardy, and they 
should be used in the same manner as the ailanthus. 

Magnolias, Magnolia Unibrclla and cordata. 

Hop-tree, Ptelea trifoliata* 

Prickly ash, Zanthoxylum Americanuni* 

Bladder-nut, StapJnjlea' trifoUa* 

Horn-beam or Blue beech, Carpinus Americana* 

Iron -wood, Ostrya Virginica* 

European Bird Cherry, Prunus Padus. 

A small tree much like the choke cherry, but a freer grower, with 
lai'ger flowers and racemes which appear about a week later. 

Choke Cherry, P. Virginiana.* 

Very showy while in flower. 
Kaempfer's Catalpa, Catalpa Kcempferi. 
Flowering crab, Pyrus floridunda. 

Pretty both in flower and fruit. A large shrub or small tree. Various 
forms. 

B. Co7iiferous Evergreens. 

Dwarf arborvitse, Thuja occidentalis , hort. var. 

There are many dwarf and compact varieties of arborvitaa, most of 
which are excellent for small places. The most desirable for general 
pui'poses, and also the largest, is the so called Siberian. Other very 
desirable forms are those sold as globosa, ericoides, Hoveyi and pyra- 
midalis. 
Japanese arborvitse or retinospora, Betinospora of various 
species. 

Very attractive small plants, of which the following nursery forms 
appear to be hardy in Central Michigan : R. squarrosa, R. pisifera, 
R. plumosa, R. obtusa. There are various varieties of these. 




185. Clematis Henryi. One-thu'd natural size. 



236 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Juniper, Juniperus coynmunis* and garden varieties. 

The juniper is a partially trailing plant, of loose habit, suitable for 
banks and rocky places. There are upright and very formal varieties 
of it, the best being those sold as var. Hibernica, "Irish juniper," and 
var. Suecica "Swedish juniper.'' 
Northern juniper, J. Sahina, var. proctimhens.* 

One of the best of the low, diffuse conifers. 
Dwarf Norway Spruce, Picea excelsa, hort. var. 

Several very dwarf sorts of the Norway spruce are in cultivation, 
some of which are to be recommended 
Dwarf pine, Pinus pumiJio. 

There are other desirable dwarf pines. 

IV. Perennial Climbers. 
A. Shrubhi/. 
1. Tendril Climbers, Root Climbers and Scramblers. 

Virginia creeper, Ampelopsis quinque folia.* 

The best vine for covering buildings in the climate of Michigan. 
Plants should be selected from vines of known habit, as some indi- 
viduals cling much better than others. 
Japanese ivy, Boston ivy, A. tricuspklata {A. Veitchil) , 

Handsomer than the Vii-ginia creeper, and clings closer, but is often 
injured by winter in exposed places, especially when young 

Garden clematis, Clematis of various species. 

Plants of robust and attractive habit, and gorgeous bloomers. C 
Jackmanni, and its varieties, is one of the best. C Henrui (Fig. 185) 
is excellent for white flowers. Clematises bloom in July and August. 

Wild clematis, C. Virginiana.'^ 

Very attractive for arbors and for covering rude objects. The pistil- 
late plants bear curious woolly balls of fruit. 

Wild Clematis, C. verticillaris. 

Less vigorous grower than the last, but excellent. 
Trumpet creeper, Tecoma radicans. 

One of the best of all free-flowering shrubs. Climbs by means of 
roots. 

Frost grape, Vitis cord i folia. 

One of the finest of all vines. It is a very tall grower, producing 
thick, heavy, dark leaves. Its foliage often reminds one of that of the 
moon-seed. Does not grow readily from cuttings. 



HARDY VINES 237 

Sinnraer and River bank grapes, V. hicolor* and V. vulpina* 

(ripayia). 
The common wild grapes. 

Ivy, Hedera Helix, 

The European ivy does not endure the bright sun of our winter. On 
the north side of a building it often does well. The best of vines for 
covering buildings where it succeeds. Hardy in middle states 

Greenbrier, Smilax rotundifoUa* and S. hispida.* 

Unique for the covering of small arbors and summer houses 

2. Twiners. 

Actinidia, A. pohjgama. 

Very strong grower, with beautiful thick foliage which is not attacked 
by insects or fungi; etirious flowers and edible fruit. The best vine for 
arbors. Japanese. 

Akebia, A. Japonica. 

Very handsome and odd Japanese vine; a strong grower, and worthy 
general planting. 

Honeysuckles, Woodbine, Lonicera sempervirens, L. Jiava, 
and others. 
Everywhere known- and appreciated. 

Dutchman's pipe, Aristolochia SipJio. 

A robixst grower, possessing enormous leaves. Useful for covering 
verandas and arbors. Needs to be more thoroughly tested in Michigan 
regarding its hardiness. 

Wax-work or Bitter-sweet, Celastrus scandens* 
Very ornamental in fruit. Flowers imperfect. 

Wistaria, Wistaria Sinensis and W. fruiescens. 

The wistarias evidently do not thrive in exposed places in Michigan 
The Chinese species. Sinensis, is a superb plant. 

Moonseed, Menispermum Canadense.^ 

A small but very attractive twiner, useful for thickets and small 
arbors 

B. Herbaceous. 

Hop, Humulus Lupulus* and H. Japonicus. 
Should be in common use as ornamental plants. 

Chinese yam, Dioscorea Batatas {D. Japonica). 

Climbs high, biit does not produce foliage enough to cover unsightly 
objects. 



238 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Wild yam, B. villosa* 

Smaller than the preceding; otherwise fully as good. 

Ground-nut, A2)ios Ulcerosa * 

A bean-like vine, producing many chocolate-brown flowers in August 
and September. 
Scarlet Runner and White Dutch Runner beans, Phaseolus 
multifloriis. 
Perennial in the South, Excellent. 

Moonflowers, Ipomcea, various species. 
Some are perennials far south. 

V. Herbaceous Perennials for Lawns. 

This list includes only a few striking plants, which are 
valuable for lawn planting, selected chiefly on account of 
their size, foliage and habit. They are usually not suitable 
for flower gardens. Many common wild plants when trans- 
planted to grounds and well grown, produce a good effect. 
It is impossible to give to this list any degree of com- 
pleteness. 

Yucca, Yucca filamentosa. 
Funkia, FunMa, of several species. 
Peltate saxifrage, Saxifraga peltata. 
Rose Mallow, Hibiscus Moscheutos* 
Elecampane, Inula Helenium (Fig. 186). 
Wild sunflowers, HeUanthus of various species, especially 

H. orygalis, H. giganteus,* H. grosse-serratus, H . stru- 

7nosus.* 
Compass-pla-nts, SilpMum of various species, especially 

S. terehinthinaceum* S. laciniatum* S. perfoliatum.'^ 
Sacaline, Polygonum SagliaUnense. 

Strong and excellent. 
Bocconia, Bocconia cordata. 

Wild wormwood, Artemisia Stelleriana and others. 
Butterfly-weed, Asclepias tuberosa.* 
Wild asters. Aster of various species, especially A. Novce- 

Anglice,* A. Icevis* A. multiflorus,* A. spectabilis. 




18fi. Elecampane. Naturalized in old fields and along 
roadsides. 



240 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Golden -rods, Solidago of various species, especially S. spe- 

ciosa,^ S. nernoralis* S. juncea,* S. gigantea* 
Loose -strife, Ly thrum Salicaria. 
Flags, Iris of very many species. 

Japanese wind-flower, Anemone Japonica. Blooms in fall- 
Goat's beard, Spircea Aruneus. 
Baptisia, Baptisia tinctoria.* 
Thermopsis, TJiermopsis mollis. 
Wild senna, Cassia Marilandica* 
Wild trefoil, Desmodium Canadense* and others. 
Ribbon grass, Phalaris arundinacea hort. var. picta. 
Zebra grass, Eulalia, or [Miscanthus) species. 
Wild panic grass, Panicum virgatum.^ 
Arundo, Arundo Donax. 

One of the most striking of reed-grasses. 
Reed, Phragmites commimis.* 

This and the remaining plants of the list should be planted in the 
edges of water. 

Wild rice, Zizania aquatica* 

Cat-tail, Typlia angustifoUa and T. latifoUa* 

Lizard's -tail, Saururus cernuus.* 

Peltandra, Peltandra undulata* 

Orontium, OronUum aquaticum. 




187. Breath ot sprmg! 



FLOWER-BEDS 241 

PLANTS FOB FLORAL EFFECTS* 

(Ernest Walker) 
1. Bemarlis on Floiver-beds 

The various styles of planting. — The mixed border, 
planted with various hardy plants, and extending along 
either side of the garden-walk, was popular years ago; 
and, with modifications in position, form and extent, has, 
during the past few years, been a popular attachment to 
home grounds. (See Hardy Herbaceous Plants, page 278.) 
To produce the best effects, the plants should be planted 
close enough to cover the ground; and the selection 
should be such as to afford a continuity of bloom. 

There is also the border of tender summer-blooming 
plants, in which the kinds are planted in a mixed fashion. 

In ribbon -bedding, so-called, flowering or foliage plants 
are arranged in ribbon -like lines of harmoniously con- 
trasting colors, commonly accompanying walks or drives, 
but also suitable for marking limits, or for the side 
borders. In such beds, as well as the others, the tallest 
plants, if the bed is to be seen from one side only, will 
be placed at the back, and the lowest at the front. If 
it is to be seen from both sides, then the tallest will 
stand in the center. 

A modification of the ribbon-line, bringing the con- 
trasting colors together into masses forming circles or 
other patterns, is known as ' * massing, " or " massing in 
color," and sometimes is spoken of as carpet-bedding. 

Carpet-bedding, however, belongs more properly to a 
style of bedding in which plants of dense, low, spreading 



* Since new and good varieties of flowering plants are constantly 
being offered, and fashions are changing, it is generally impracticable 
to give lists of named varieties in a book. These varieties should be 
chosen after consulting the annual or periodical publications, as seeds- 
men's and plantsmen's catalogues, journals, and bulletins.— L. H. B. 



242 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

habit — chiefly foliage plants, with leaves of different 
forms and colors — are planted in patterns not unlike 
carpets or rugs. 

Beds composed of the large foliage plants, for pro- 
ducing tropical effects, are composed, in the main, of 
plants which are allowed to develop naturally. In the 
lower and more orderly massing, the plants are arranged 
not only in circles and patterns according to habit and 
height, but the selection is such that some or all may 
be kept within proper limits by pinching or trimming. 
Circles or masses composed of flowering plants usually 
cannot be cut back at the top, so that the habit of the 
plants must be known before planting; and they must 
be placed in parts of the bed where trimming will not be 
necessary. They may, however, be clipped at the sides 
in ease the branches or foliage of one mass or line in 
the pattern grows beyond its proper bounds. 

Aquatics may often be used to good effect in the 
landscape. This is especially true of such large and bold 
kinds as the lotus, which makes a very strong constrast 
against a building or a background of foliage. Ponds 
are usually protected at the edges by mason -work, and 
in loose soils they have cement bottoms. In some soils, 
a simple excavation will hold water, but it is usually 
necessary to give the tank some kind of lining. Clay is 
often used. The bottom and sides of the tank are 
pounded firm, and then covered with three to six inches 
of clay, which has been kneaded in the hands, or pounded 
and worked in a box. Handfuls or shovelfuls of the 
material are thrown forcibly upon the earth, the operator 
being careful not to walk upon the work. The clay is 
smoothed by means of a spade or maul, and it is then 
sanded. These lily tanks are from two to three feet 
deep. 

Aquatics in the open nearly always show to best ad- 
vantage if a few tall bog plants are grown with them. 



AQUATICS 



243 



Swamps yield many interesting tall plants, and there are 
many exotics in the market which can be grown with 
water lilies. The common wild water lilies can be grown 




189. A tub of water lilies. 

in tubs (Fig. 189), strong flowering roots being got each 
year or two from the wild. The subject of aquatics is 
too special for this book, and the reader who wishes the 
best information should consult Tricker's "Water Gar- 
den." 

2. Carpet-bedding 

The beauty of the carpet-bed lies largely in its unity^ 
sharp contrast and harmony of color, elegance — often sim- 
plicity — of design, nicety of execution, and the continued 
distinctness of outline due to scrupulous care. A gen- 
erous allowance of greensward on all sides contributes 
greatly to the general effect, — in fact is indispensable. 



244 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Let us pass to considerations purely practical: What- 
ever place is selected for the bed, it should be in a sunny- 
situation. This, nor any kind of bed, should not be 
planted near large trees, as their greedy roots will rob the 
soil not only of its food, but of moisture. The shade, 
also ^will be a menace. As the plants stand so thick, 
the soil should be well enriched, and spaded at least a 
foot deep. In planting, a space of at least six inches 
must be left between the outer row of plants and the 
edge of the grass. The very style of the bed requires 
that lines be straight, the curves uniform, and that they 
be kept so by the frequent and careful use of the shears. 
During dry periods watering will be necessary. The beds, 
however, should not be watered in the hot sunshine. 
Foliage plants are most in use, and are the ones which 
will prove the most satisfactory in the hands of the 
inexperienced, as they submit to severe clipping and are 
thus more easily managed. 

The following list will be found helpful to the beginner. 
It embraces a number of the plants in common use for 
carpet-bedding. Other useful kinds will be found under 
the discussion of annuals (page 255) . The usual heights 
are given in inches. This, of course, in different soils 
and under different treatment is, more or less, a variable 
quantity. The figures in parentheses suggest in inches 
suitable distances for planting in the row when immediate 
effects are expected. A verbena in rich soil will in time 
cover a circle three feet or more in diameter; other 
plants mentioned spread considerably; but when used in 
the carpet-bed they must be planted close. One can 
not wait for them to grow. The aim is to cover the 
ground at once. Although planted thick in the row, 
it will be desirable to leave more room between the rows 
in case of spreading plants like the verbena. Most of 
them, however, need little if any more space between 
the rows than is indicated by the figures given. In the 



CARPET -BEDDING 245 

list those plants which bear free clipping are marked 
with an asterisk (*) : 

PLANTS FOR CARPET -BEDS 

1. Low-growing Plants 

The figure immediately following the name of plant indicates its 
height; the figures in parentheses the distance for planting. 

A. Foliage Plants. 

Cronsow. — *Alternanthera amoena spectabilis, G (4-6). 

" paronychioides major. 5 (3-6). 

" versicolor, 5 (3-6). 

Yellow.— " aurea nana, 6 (4-6). 

Grey, or WhifLsh. — Echeyeria, secunda, glauca, IK (3-4). 
" metallica, 9 (6-8). 

Cineraria maritima 15 (9-12). 
Sempervivum Californicum 13^ (3-4). 
Thymus argentea 6 (4-6). 
Bronze Brown. — Oxalis tropoeoloides, 3 (3-4). 
Variegated (White and green).— 

Geranium Mme. Solleroi, 6 (6-8). 
* Sweet alyssum, variegated, 6 (6-9)o 

B. Flowering Plants. 

Scarlet.-Fhlox Drummondii, Dwarf, 6 (4-6). 

Cuphea platycentra, Cigar Plant, 6 (4-6). 
White. — Sweet alyssum, Little Gem, 4 (4-6). 
" " common, 6 (6-8). 

Phlox Drummondii, Dwarf, 6 (4-6). 
Blue. — Lobelia, Crystal Palace, 6 (4-6). 
Ageratum, Dwarf Blue, 6 (6-8). 

2. Plants of Taller Growth. 

A. Foliage Plants. 

Crimson. — *Coleus Verschaffeltii, 24 (9-12), 
*Achyranthes Lindeni, 18 (8-12). 

* " Gilsoni, 12 (8-12). 

* " Verschaffeltii, 12 (8-12). 
*Acalypha tricolor, 12-18 (12). 



246 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Ff?7oM'.-*Coleus, Golden, 24 (9-12). 

*Achyranthes, aurea reticulata, 12 (8-12). 
Golden feverfew (Pyrethrum parthenifolium 

aureum), (6-8). 
Bronze geranium, 12 (9). 
Silvery White.— 

Dusty Miller (Centaurea gymnocarpa), 12 (8-12). 
*Santolina chamsecyparissus incana, 6-12 (6-8). 
Geranium, Mountain of Snow, 12 (6-9). 
V(xriegated (white and green).— 

*Stevia serrata var., 12-18 (8-12). 
Phalaris arundinacea var. (grass), 24 (4-8). 
Cyperus alternifolius var. 24-30 (8-12). 
i?ro w2;e.—*Acalypha marginata, 24 (12). 

B. Ft.o\vering Plants. 

6VarZeL- Salvia splendens 36 (12-18). 
Geraniums, 24 (12). 
Cuphea tricolor (C. Llavae), 18 (8-12). 
Dwarf nasturtium (Tropseolum) 12-18 (12-18). 
Begonia, Vernon, 12 (6-8). 
Verbenas, 12 (6-12). 
Phlox Drummondii, dwarf, 6 (4-6). 
White. — ^?i\y\a. splendens. White-flowered, 36 (12-18)o 
Geraniums, 18-24 (12). 
Lantana, Innocence, 18-24 (8-12). 

Queen Victoria, 24 (8-12). 
Verbena, Snow Queen, 12 (6-12). 
Ageratum, white, 9 (6-9). 
Phlox Drummondii, dwarf, 6 (4-6). 
Pi « A;. — Petunia, Ccuntess of Ellesmere, 18 (8-12)o 
Lantana, 24 (8-12). 
Verbena, Beauty of Oxford, 6 (8-12). 
Phlox Drummondii, dwarf, 6 (4-6). 
»77o«'.- Dwarf nasturtium, 12 (12-18). 

Anthemis coronaria fl. pi., 12 (6-8). 
i^/«e.— Ageratum Mexicanum, 12 (6-8). 
Verbenas, 6 (6-12). 
Heliotrope, Queen of Violets, 18 (12-18). 




190. Designs for carpet -beds. 



248 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

In Fig. 190 are shown a few designs suitable for carpet 
beds. They are intended merely to be suggestive, not to 
be copied precisely. The simple forms and component 
parts of the more elaborate beds may be arranged into 
other designs. Likewise the arrangement of plants which 
will be mentioned as suitable for making a given pat- 
tern, is only one of many possible arrangements. The 
idea is merely to bring out the design distinctly. To 
accomplish this it is only necessary to use plants of con- 
trasting color or growth. To illustrate how varied are 
the arrangements that may be used, and how easily dif- 
ferent effects are produced with a single design, I will 
mention several different combinations of color for the 
bed No 1. 

No. 1.— Arrangement A: Outside, Alternanthera amoena spec- 
tabilis; inside, Stevia serrata variegata. B: lobelia. Crystal 
Palace; Mme. Solleroi geranium. C: lobelia, Crystal Palace; 
scarlet dwarf phlox. D: sweet alyssura; petunia. Countess 
of Ellesmere. E: coleus. Golden Bedder; coleus Verchaf- 
feltii. F: Achyranthes Lindeni; yellow dwarf nasturtium. 

No. 2. — Outside, red alternanthera; middle, Dusty Miller; 
center, pink geranium. 

No. 3. — Outside, Alternanthera aurea nana ; middle, Alter- 
nanthera amcena spectabilis ; center, Anthemis coronaria. 

No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 may each be filled with a single color, 
or given a border of suitable plants if the planter so chooses. 

No. 9. — Ground, Alternanthera aurea nana; center, Acalypha 
tricolor; black dots, scarlet geranium. 

No. 10. — Ground of Centaurea gymnocarpa; circle, Achyranthes 
Lindeni; cross, golden coleus. 

No. 11. — Border, Oxalis tropaeoloides; center, blue heliotrope, 

blue ageratum, or Acalypha marginata; cross about the 

center. Thymus argentea, or centaurea; scallop outside the 

cross, blue lobelia; corners inside border, santolina. 

Designs 13 and 14 are, in character, somewhat in the style 

of a parterre; but instead of the intervening spaces in the 

bed being ordinary walks they are of grass. Such beds are 

of a useful type, because they may be made large and j^et be 



CARPET -BEDDING 



249 



executed with a comparatively small number of plants. They 
are especially suita])le for the center of an open plot of lawn 
with definite formal boundaries on all sides, such as walks 
or drives. Whether they are to be composed of tall-growing 
or of low-growing plants will depend upon the distance they 
are to be from the observer. For a moderate sized plot the 
following plants might be used: 

No. 13. — Border, red alternanthera; second row, dwarf orange 
or yellow nasturtium; third row, Achyranthes Gilsoni, or 




191. Carpet-bed for a bay or recession in the border planting. 



Acalypha tricolor; central square, scarlet geraniums, with a 
border of Centaurea gymnocarpa, intervening spaces, grass. 
Instead of the square of geraniums, a vase might be sub- 
stituted, or a clump of Salvia splendens. 
No. 14. — Composite beds like this and the former are always 
suggestive. They contain various features which may readily 
be re-combined into other patterns. Sometimes it may be 
convenient to use only portions of the design. The reader 



250 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

should feel that no arrangement is arbitrary, but merely a 
suggestion which he may use with the utmost freedom, only 
keeping harmony in view. For No. 14, the following may be 
an acceptable planting arrangement; Border, Mme.- Solleroi 
geranium ; small dots, dwarf scarlet tropaeolum; diamonds, 
blue lobelia ; crescents, Stevia serrata variegata ; inner 
border, crimson achyranthes or coleus ; loops, Centaurea 
gymnocarpa; wedge-shape portions, scarlet geranium. 




192. Another circular carpet-bed. 



No. 15. — Suitable for a corner. Border, red alternanthera ; 
second row, Alternanthera aurea nana ; third row, red 
alternanthera; center, Echeveria Calif ornica. 

No 16. — Border, crimson alternanthera (another border of 
yellow alternanthera might be placed inside of this) ; ground, 
Echeveria secunda glauca ; inner border, Oxalis tropaeoloides ; 
center, Alternanthera aurea nana. Or, inner border, Ech- 
everia Calif ornica; center, crimson alternanthera. 

No. 17.— Another bed intended to fill an angle. Its curved 



PLANTS FOR EDGINGS 251 

side will also fit it for use with a circular design. Border, 
dwarf blue ageratum ; circle, blue lobelia ; ground (3 parts), 
crimson alternanthera. 
Other carpet or mosaic beds (after Long), with the plants 
indicated, are sliown in Figs. 191, 192. 



3. Edgings and Mass-heds 

PLANTS FOR EDGINGS, BORDERS AND RIBBON-BEDS 
[Blooming all summer) 

Ageratum Mexicanum, Hh.* Dwarf blue, Height, 9 inches. 
Sow when danger of frost is over, in the open ground; or 
for early plants, in March, in the greenhouse or hotbed. 
Plant them 6 inches apart. 

Alyssum (Sweet) H. White. Of spreading habit, growing G to 
8 inches high. A valuable plant. Treatment the same as 
for ageratum. 

Candytuft, H. The annual kinds are useful bedding plants. 
The white and carmine sorts are the best colors. Height, 
1 foot. The dwarf Iberis affinis grows only about 6 inches 
high. Its colors are white, rose, and purple. Treatment 
similar to the last. When sown early, transplant while 
small to pots. 

Clarkia. See Annuals, page 259. 

GiLiA. See Annuals, page 259. 

Lobelia erinus, Hh. P. Of compact, trailing habit. Small 
blue flowers. Height, 6 inches. Crystal Palace is perhaps 
the best. Sow in a hotbed or greenhouse in January. 

Marigold. See Annuals, page 261. 

Nemophila. See Annuals, page 261. 

Portulaca, T. Beautiful and brilliapt, for either lines, edg- 
ings, or masses — especially the double sorts. The flowers 
are like little roses, and of a great variety of shades in 
scarlet, white, pink, yellow, and purple. Height, 6 inches. 
Blooms from July till frost. Sow thickly in the open 



*H., Hh. and T. P., hardy, half-hardy and tender perennial re- 
spectively. 



252 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

ground when danger of frost is past. They begin to flower 
soon, and any single ones that appear may be removed. 
Thin to about 4 or 6 inches. They prefer a dry, warm 
situation, delighting in the hottest and sunniest weather. 

ToKENiA, T. For a partially shaded situation, as with pansies, 
these are attractive. T. Fournieri has porcelain-blue and 
rich violet flowers. Of T. Bailloni the flowers are deep 
yellow and maroon. There is also a white variety known as 
White Wings. Height, 6 inches or more. Sow in March 
in a hotbed, or window. They must have a temperature of 
at least 60°. Plant out when danger of frost is past. 

Whitlavia, H. Flowers bell-shaped, white and violet-blue, or 
purple. Height, 1 foot or more. Should have light, sandy 
soil to do best. Sow in the open ground when the soil is 
right, and danger of frost is over. For early plants, start in 
March in a temperature of about 60°. 



PLANTS FOR TROPICAL EFFECTS, MASSING 
{Or for the center or hack of a group) 

The number of plants in this category which may 
be readily grown from seed, is limited. Some of the 
best kinds are included below. It will often be worth 
while to supplement these with others, to be had at the 
florists, such as caladiums, screw pines, Ficus elastica, 
Musa Ensete, palms, crotons, and others. 

In the use of such plants, there are opportunities for 
the exercise of the nicest taste. A gross feeder, as 
the ricinus, in the midst of a bed of delicate annuals, 
is like a lion among lambs; and a stately, royal - 
looking plant among humbler kinds often makes the 
latter look common, when if headed with a chief of 
their own rank all would appear to the best advantage. 

Amaranthus, T. These have ornamental foliage and make 
handsome plants for the center of beds. The seeds may 
be sown in a warm hotbed temperature in March, and the 
3'oung plants set out about the first of June. Seed saved 



PLANTS FOR EDGINGS 253 

from the best kinds will produce some infei'ior plants, so it 
is well to plant three or four together. When they show 
their color, all but the best one may be removed or cut off. 
A. tricolor is the well-known "Joseph's Coat." The leaves are 
red, yellow and green. Height, 3 feet. A. caudatiis grows 
to a similar height, is of drooping habit and has fine red 
foliage. A. salicifoliiis is of drooping habit, and from its 
graceful appearance has received the name of the "Fountain 
Plant." It attains a height of 4 feet. 

Aralia, Hh. P. A. Sleholdil, or Fatsia Japonica as it is some- 
times called, and the variety variegata, have large palm-like, 
leaves and a rather tropical appearance. Height 3 feet. Sow- 
in February, in shallow trays and light soil, in a temperature 
of 65°. Continue the temperature. When two or three leaves 
have formed, transplant into other trays 1 inch apart. Sprinkle 
them with a fine rose or spray; and do not allow them to 
suffer for water. Later, transfer them to small pots and 
repot them as they grow. Plant out in beds after the weather 
has become warm and settled. 

Cannas, T. p. These are well known and are among the most 
ornamental and important plants used in decorative garden- 
ing. They make fine herbaceoiis hedges, groups, masses, 
and — when desirable— good center plants for beds. They grow 
from 3 to 10 feet or more high. Formerly they were valued 
chiefly for their magnificent foliage, but since the intro- 
duction, in 1884, of the Crozy Dwarf French type with their 
splendid flowers, cannas are grown as much for their flowers 
as for their foliage effects. The flowers of these new kinds 
are as large as those of gladioli, and are of various shades 
of yellow and red, with banded and spotted forms. These 
grow about 3 feet high. The older forms are taller. In both 
sections there are green-leaved and dark coppery-red-leaved 
varieties. It requires two years to raise strong plants of 
the canna from seed. The seeds are bullet-like and hard. 
File a small notch through the coat of each seed— avoiding 
the round germinating point. Sow in light, sandy soil where 
the earth may be kept at 70° till after germination. After 
the plants have got well up, transplant them to about 
3 or 4 inches apart, or place in pots three inches 
wide, in good rich soil. They may now be kept at 60°. 



254 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Plant out when there is no longer danger of frost. The 
old (foliage) sorts may be left out late to ripen up the fleshy 
root-stocks. Cut the tops off immediately after frost. The 
roots are safe in the ground as long as it does not freeze. 
Dig, and dry or "cure" for a few days, then winter them like 
potatoes in the cellar. It is a common mistake to dig canna 
roots too early. The French sorts are commonly thought 
to keep best if kept gi'owing somewhat during the winter; 
but if managed right, they may be carried over like the 
others. Immediately after frost, cut off the tops next the 
ground. Cover the stumps with a little soil and leave the roots 
in the ground till well ripened. Clean them after digging, 
and cure or dry them for a week or more in the open air 
and sun, taking them indoors at night. Then place them 
away from frost in a cool, dry place. 

Maize, T. The variegated Japanese corn, Zea Japonica varle- 
gafa, is a splendid variegated plant for the center or back 
of beds, clumps, etc. The leaves are striped with white. 
Sow out of doors when there is no longer danger of frost. 
It is well to have at least three plants in a group for beds. 
This variety grows only about 4 feet high. 

RiciNUS, T. This is the well-known castor oil plant. It has 
a very tropical appearance, and may be used as a single 
specimen on the lawn, for a hedge-like row, or for the cen- 
ter of large beds, especially with cannas and caladiums. 
The plant branches freely and grows to a height of 9-12 
feet or more. Leaves large and palmate. Start the seed in 
small pots in March in a temperature of 60° or more, and 
plant out when the weather is settled. The seed may also 
be started in the open ground. Give them a dry situation 
and deep, rich soil. The variety S. Cambodgensis has bronzy 
foliage and is one of the best, growing about 6 feet high. 
H. Borhoniensis attains a height of 15 feet, and R. Zanzi- 
bariensis likewise. 

WiGANDiA, T. P. This plant, although perennial, should be grown 
from the seed each year. It has leaves 2 or 3 feet long by 
half as wide, and grows 4 feet high. The stems are cov- 
ered with red hairs, and the leaves are handsomely veined. 
The plant requires room and light, and is most suitable for 
spacious gi'ounds, where it may be used for massing or as 



ANNUAL FLOWERS 255 

single specimens for the lawn. W. macrophylla and W. 
Vigieri are to be had of seed-dealers. Sow the seed in 
February or March in a temperature averaging 65° to 70°. 
Transplant at first to boxes, afterward to pots, and grow till 
time for planting out. 



4. Aymuals 

Many of the showy annuals are especially well suited 
to growing in masses, while the dwarf kinds make fine 
flowery edging for beds or walks. It is also possible to 
make handsome ribbon -beds with the dwarf sorts; but 
here, as shearing is well nigh precluded, we should limit 
ourselves to simple designs. For the best effects, much 
depends both upon a judicious selection of kinds, and 
arrangement. In purchasing seeds, it is best to buy the 
different colors in separate packages, and to buy the best. 
Hardy annuals are such as develop readily without the 
aid of artificial heat. They are commonly sown in May 
or earlier, directly in the open ground where they are 
to grow. Florists often sow certain kinds in the fall, 
and winter the young plants in coldframes. They may 
also be wintered under a covering of leaves or evergreen 
boughs. The half-hardy and tender annuals are alike in 
that they require more warmth for their germination and 
growth. They, like the hardy kinds, may be sown in the 
open ground, but not until the weather has become settled, 
and warm, which for the tender kinds will not commonly 
be before the first of June. A few of the annuals thrive 
in partial shade or where they receive sunshine for half 
the day; but most of them prefer a sunny situation. 

Any good garden soil is suitable for annuals. If not 
naturally fertile and friable, it should be made so by the 
application of well rotted stable -manure or humus. The 
spading should be at least one foot deep. The upper six 
inches is then to be given a second turning to pulverize 



256 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

and mix it. After making the surface fine and smooth, 
the soil should be pressed down with a board. The seed 
may now be sprinkled on the soil in lines or concentric 
circles, according to the method desired. After covering, 
the seed, the soil should be pressed down with a board. 
This promotes capillarity, by which the surface of the 
soil is better supplied with moisture than would be possi- 
ble otherwise. Always mark the kind and position of 
all seed sown with a label. 

While many kinds of annuals may be sown directly in 
the open ground, some of the sorts, especially the tender 
ones, will flower sooner in the season and give much 
more satisfaction if sown early under cover. The majority 
of these may be sown aboiit the middle of March, but 
some must be sown in February. Where but a few 
are to be grown, a sunny window answers, especially 
for March sowings; but it is more satisfactory to have 
a hotbed, or greenhouse, at command. The danger with 
early sown seedlings is "drawing up," and weakness 
from crowTling and want of light. This is most liable 
to occur with window-grown plants. Vigorous June-sown 
plants are better than such weaklings. 

Poppies, bartonia, Venus' looking-glass, the dwarf 
convolvulus, lupinus, and malope do not bear trans- 
planting well. It is best, therefore, to sow them where 
they are to grow. Some annuals do not bloom all sum- 
mer, especially if allowed to produce seed. Of such 
kinds a second or third sowing at intervals will provide 
a succession. Preventing the formation of seeds, if possi- 
ble, is like manure to annuals, in prolonging their life 
and flowering. 

Below is given a classified list of some of the best 
continuous flowering kinds, which may be raised from 
seed. The terms hardy, half-hardy and tender are ab- 
breviated H,, Hh., and T. respectively. Perennials are 
indicated by P. ; all others are annuals. 



ANNUALS 



257 



Alonsoa, Hh., P. Rich scarlet flowers. A white variety 
is also to be had. Height, 1>^ to 2 feet. They may be 
propagated, both by seeds and cuttings. They need a 
light, rich soil. Sow the seeds in February, in the hot- 
bed or greenhouse, and plant them out in May, 1 foot apart. 
Asters, Hh. These fall flowers, known as the China and 
German asters, present an almost endless number of 
varieties. The flowers are 
large, double and o£ various 
shades of red, blue and white. 
Some of them, especially the 
Washington asters, rival 
chrysanthemums. They grow 
from 1 to 2 feet high. Sow 
in the middle of March, in 
a coldframe, or in the open 
ground, in early May. If 
sown in the fall and win- 
tered in a cool greenhouse, 
they may be had in bloom 
in the spring. For fine flow- 
ers they should have rich 
soil, stand about 10 to 12 
inches apart, and never re- 
ceive any check. 
Bailey writes as follows on 

these flowers (Bull. 90, Cornell 

Exp. Sta.) : " The China asters 

are among the best of all the 

annual garden flowers. They 

are of the easiest culture, most 

free of bloom, and comprise a 

multitude of forms and colors. ^^^: Showing the habit of _oiie of 

They are therefore admirably 
adapted to profuse and gen- 
erous effects in schemes of planting. They are also worthy of 
wide attention because they are adapted to many of the pur- 
poses for which chrysanthemums are grown, and they can be 
raised to perfection wholly without use of glass. They attain 
their best in the decline of the season, from late August till 




[.CJiautk^rJa 



the types of tall asters,— Truf- 
faut's peony-flowered. 



Q 



258 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

frost, at a time when many of the annuals and the greater 
part of the perennials are spent and gone. No garden flow- 
ers carry such a profusion of bloom and color down to the 
very closing in of winter. Last fall our aster border still had 
blooms when the snows fell in November, and when even the 
wild goldenrods had waned and died." 

Bartonia, H. Flowers golden yellow, glistening in the sun- 
light ; fragrant in the evening; flowering all summer. B- 
aiirea grows 3 feet high, while B. mirea nana attains a 
height of 1}4 feet. They need a moist situation and 
should always be grown in masses. Sow early, where they 
are to grow. The dwarf may be planted 1 foot apart; the 
former, 2 feet. 
Brachycome, Hh. Handsome for either edgings or masses. 
The flowers somewhat resemble those of the single daisy, 
and are fine for cutting. The original color was blue, but 
there is now also a white variety. Plant bushy; 1 foot 
high. Start the seed in March, in a hotbed or other 
warm place. They may also be sown the last of May, in 
the open, but bloom later. Set the plants 6 to 8 inches 
apart in beds. 
Calliopsis (Coreopsis), H. Splendid for rich and strong effects. 
Of rapid growth and slender, branching habit, they attain 
a height of 3 feet or more. They flower all summer, and. 
are useful for cutting. The colors are orange, yellow, and 
rich, reddish brown. The plants must have room to spread. 
Two feet will be close enough. The seed may be sown at the 
end of March, in the open ground, as these plants are of 
very hardy nature. For very early bloom the plants should 
should be grown in mild heat, and set out in May. Core- 
opsis lanceolata and its variety, "Golden Glory," are closely 
allied hardy perennials, growing only from 12 to 18 inches 
high. Their flowers are golden yellow, and the plants are 
of dense, low, leafy habit. 
Chrysanthemum, H. Of the annual Chrysanthemums, C. 
multicaule and C. coronariiim are of especial value as bed. 
ders. The former has yellow flowers, and grows to a height 
of 4 feet. The latter grows but 13^ feet high, and is white. 
Both flower freely all summer. Sow the seed in March, 
in a mild hotbed, or in the house for early flowering plants. 



ANNUALS 259 

Or they may be sown where they are to grow as soon as 
the soil will permit. The latter needs about one foot space 
in the beds; the former moi*e. 

Clarkia, H. a bed of the double white or rose-colored C. 
elegans is very beautiful. The plants grow 1}4 feet high. 
They may also be used for edgings to beds of taller plants. 
The dwarf variety, called White Tom Thumb, grows only 
about 10 inches high. They grow in any soil. Sow the seed 
in March, or later, in the open ground. For very early 
bloom sow the seed in September. If the winter is mild 
they will survive. A few can always be depended on. Plant 
them 1 foot apart, in an open situation. 

EsoHSCHOLTZiA, H. (Fig. 194). Originally from California. 
Known as the California poppy. One foot in height; foliage 
greyish. Flowers yellow, orange, and white, produced all 
summer. Also to be had in double varieties. Of easy 
culture. The seeds may be sown in the open border in 
spring as soon as the ground will permit. But it is best 
to obtain seeds during the summer or fall, as soon as they 
are ripe, and sow for the following season where they are to 
grow. Thin to about 10 inches apart. 

Gaillardia, Hh. These are beautiful; the only objection to 
them is that the seeds germinate slowly, and must be sown 
as early as February in the greenhouse or a hotbed. They 
do best in a rich, light soil. The plants grow 2 feet high 
and flower freely through the summer and fall. Set the 
plants from 12 to 18 inches apart. G. ambJyodon is a fine 
red. G. picta (Aurora Borealis) is scarlet and yellow. 

GiLiA, H. Of the Gilias, G. achillecefolia, G. rosea and G. 
linifolia are satisfactory and pretty for bedding. The first 
two grow 1 foot or more in height, the one being blue, the 
other rose-color. The last mentioned grows but 6 inches 
high and has white flowers. It is a good edging kind. They 
bloom through the spring and summer and are desirable for 
cutting. Unless done when they are very small they do not 
transplant w^ell. It is a good plan, therefore, to sow the seed 
in the fall where they are to grow, and cover the beds 
lightly during winter with leaves. 

GoDETiA, H. These bloom profusely and continuously from early 
till late, and are very handsome. Colors, red, pink, and 




194. Eschscholtzia mai'itima of tiorists. One-half size. 



ANNUALS 261 

white, several shades. They grow to a height of about 1/^ 
feet. Let them stand a foot or more apart. They grow too 
freely in rich soil, so should be planted in rather poor. 
Sow the seed in March in a hotbed and transplant them to 
their beds the latter half of May, or when the weather has 
become settled. 

Marigold, H. Three or four species of this plant (Tagetes) 
are found in gardens, and are old friends. The African 
grow about 2 feet high and are valuable for mass effects 
and distant groups. Some object to them on account of the 
ill-scent of the herbage when handled. The flowers are 
large, yellow, or orange, and come in summer and autumn. 
Sow the seeds in a coldframe in March, and transplant 
them to beds in May, 14 inches apart or more. The Dwarf 
French, of yellow and brown colors, are suitable for closer 
planting in small beds and borders. Legion of Honor is a 
pretty dwarf. 

MiMULUS, H. P. Under this genus may be mentioned M. hybri- 
dus cicpreus as a useful kind. The flowers are bright, of 
mixed colors, orange and crimson, and are produced from 
early till late. The plant grows 1}4 feet in height. It does 
best when somewhat shaded, but is not particular about the 
soil. Sow in the open as soon as it is dry enough. 

Nasturtium. See Tropaeolum. 

NEMOPHIL4, H. For a shady situation this plant is delicate 
and pretty. iV. insignis grows 1 foot high, and blooms all 
summer. Flowers blue. Sow in March in a frame and 
transplant early. Set them 6 inches apart in the beds. Fall- 
sown plants do nicely during the winter in a cool green- 
house. 

Pansy, H. The pansy is generally mentioned with plants suit- 
able for partial shade, but it also thrives in other localities, 
especially where the sun is not verj' hot nor the weather 
very dry. It thrives at a low temperature. The seed should 
be sown in the fall (September) if possible, in light, rich 
well prepared soil. When they are well up they may be 
transplanted to good, rich, loamy soil, 3 or 4 inches 
apart. A frame or sheltered spot is the proper place. Here 
they may be covered, at the approach of cold weather, with 
a frame, with evergreen-boughs, or boards, to be removed 



262 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

whenever the weather is mild. The plants will make a good 
growth before cold weather, and will be ready for a mass 
of bloom the following spring. In hot summer weather they 
bloom, but the flowers become small. Pansies delight in 
cool weather and moisture. They may also be sown in the 
spring as soon as the ground can be worked, but fall sow- 
ing is generally preferable. 

Papaver, H. Poppies are of the most brilliant tulip-like colors. 
The Shirley race is distinct and of special value for bedding. 
For continuity of bloom, allow no seed-pods to develop. The 
plants grow 1 foot in height. A sandy loam suits them best. 
The Shirley s bloom the first year. As they do not bear 
transplanting, sow the seed in early spring where they are 
to grow. 

Petunia, H. P. Well known, and by all accorded a place near 
the head of the list of bedding plants. The single blotched, 
plain or fringed are pi-eferable, as bedders, to the double. 
The colors are white and crimson. Height, 2 feet. Countess 
of Ellesmere is a pink of solid color, excepting its white 
throat. It is of compact habit, and comes practically true 
from seed. Petunias do well in any garden, and may be 
sown early in the hotbed, coldframe, or later in the open 
ground. Set the plants 18 inches apart, and they will be 
a mass of bloom all summer. 

Phlox Drummondii, H. For clear and brilliant colors, the 
many varieties of this, the only annual species of the Phlox 
genus, are certaiulj^ unrivaled. The dwarf kinds are the 
more desirable for ribbon beds, as they are not so "leggj\" 
There are whites, pinks, reds and variegated of the most 
dazzling brilliancy. The dwarfs grow 10 inches high, and 
bloom continuously. Set them 8 inches apart in good soil. 
Seed may be sown in the open ground in May, or for early 
plants, in the hotbed in March. They may be sown close 
in the fall if sown very late, so that the seeds will not start 
till spring. 

Poppy. (See Papaver.) 

PoRTULACA. (See Plants for Edging, page 251.) 

Salvia splendens, Hh. P. Of the numerous species of this 
genus, the one mentioned is, beyond doubt, the best for 
garden decoration, and has long been a favorite for this 



ANNUALS 263 

purpose. The plant is a blaze of scarlet all summer. 
Height, 2 to 23^ feet. Easily grown. Sow the seed in a 
temperature of 60° to 70°. The plants may be set out 
when the weather has become settled. Plant 18 inches 
apart. 

Tropceolum minus, H. The Dwarf Nasturtiums grow but 
1 foot high. They flourish in the hottest weather, and in 
poor soil. The flowers are scarlet, golden, cream, pink, 
and sometimes almost black, and borne in the greatest 
profusion. Fine effects are produced by planting them so 
as to contrast with white or blue flowers. Sow in March, 
in a temperature of 60°, or in the open ground like the 
last. 

Verbena, Hh. P. Fig. 195. Easily grown from seed, which 
may be started in a hotbed in February or March. Once 
transplanted, the plants may be set out in May. Plant 
them 2 feet apart, or farther in rich soil. They love a 
loam, and fresh soil each year. The colors are white, blue, 
red, pUi'ple and pink, of various shades. Seedlings canno^; 
be depended on when the separate colors are wanted, so 
it is better to buy than to grow them. 

Zinnia, H. The dull colors of the old-time Zinnias have 
given place to the brightest shades of scarlet, rose, orange, 
and yellow. They are easily grown and succeed almost 
anywhere. Height, 2 feet. The flowers last a long time, 
and are produced from June till frost. Sow in the open, 
when danger of frost is past, and thin the plants to 2 
feet apart. For earlier flowers, sow in March, in the win- 
dow, hotbed or greenhouse. The white and orange Tom 
Thumb are dwarf— growing about 6 or 8 inches high — and 
may be used for edging. 

ANNUAL CLIMBING PLANTS 

The following, for arbors, verandas, etc., are some of 
the best summer climbers, and are readily grown from 
seed, flowering the first season. 
Bryonopsis laciniosa, var. erythrocarpa, Hh. 10 feet. Small, 

scarlet fruit, striped with white, about the size of cherries. 

Sow in the garden when danger of frost is over. Tendrils. 




195. Bouquet of verbenas. 



CLIMBING ANNUALS 265 

Cardiospermum Halicacabum. Hh. 5 to 10 feet. Has an 
inflated membranous capsule, and is also known as Balloon 
Vine. Sow as for Bryonopsis. 

CoB(EA SCANDENS, T. P. 20 feet. Flowers the first season if 
sown in March or earlier. Flowers purple. Tendrils. Sow 
in light, sandy soil, pressing the thin seed down edgewise 
into the soil. They will then need no further covering. 
60° to 65° will suit them. Keep the soil barely moist till 
they are up. 

Convolvulus major, H. 15 feet Flowering freely. Showy. 
The new Japanese strain of Morning-Glories are much 
more brilliant in coloring. Twining. Sow as early as pos. 
sible, in a warm, sunny place, when the soil is suitable. 

DoLiCHOS Lablab, T. 10 to 20 feet. Flowers in clusters, 
purple and white. Sow like the last. Known also as the 
Hyacinth Bean. Twining. 

Eccremocarpus scabra, Hh. P. 6 to 10 feet. Flowers tubular, 
in clusters; orange. Graceful and pretty. If cut down in 
the fall, and protected with leaves or straw, it will shoot up 
the following season. Sow early, in a temperature of 60° 
to 70°, or in the garden when the soil has become warm. 

HuMULUs Japonicus, T. The Japanese Hop. An excellent, 
rapid climber. The variety variegatus has leaves blotched 
with white. Twining. 15 feet. Sow in deep, rich soil, as 
soon as dry enough. 

Ipomcea coccinea, H. 10 feet or more. Small scarlet flowers. 
Twining. 
I. Quamoclit, T. The "Cypress Vine." Delicately dissected 
green foliage. Flowers rose, white, or scarlet. 10 feet or 
more. Twining. 
I. grandiflora, and others, T. The "Moon Flower," "Even- 
ing Glory." 20 to 30 feet. Flowers large, white, opening 
in the evening twilight. Twining. The last, to flower, 
should, if possible, be started in March. A temperature of 
65° or 70° insures rapid germination. If a small notch is 
cut through the hard shell, the seeds germinate in four 
or five days. The other kinds may be started early, or 
sown in the open ground after danger of frost is past. 

Maurandya Barclayana, Hh. P. A delicate and slender 
climber. Purple flowers. 6 to 12 feet. There are also rose 



266 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

and white-flowered varieties. A leaf climber. Sow in 
March, in a temperature of 60°. 

Sweet Peas, H. 4 feet or more. Flowers pink, scarlet, 
purple, blue, white and yellow, of various shades ; fragrant. 
Useful for cutting and for low screens. The Sweet Pea has 
been much improved during the last few years, and has 
become one of the most popular flowers. It delights in a 
heavy, though deep and rich, stiff loam. For early spring 
bloom, sow the seed in the fall, 4 or 5 inches deep, giving 
them a dry situation. In the spring it is well to make 
several sowings at intervals, beginning as soon as the frost 
is out of the ground. The other sowings may be at inter- 
vals of two or three weeks till June. A successful method 
is to sow them in trenches about 6 inches deep, covering 
them, at first, with only one inch of soil. As the plants 
grow the trench is filled up, an inch at a time, till full. 
When the trench is about full they should be copiously 
watered. Provide a support trellis of cords. Brush, as for 
common peas, also answers. The more the flowers are 
cut and used, the better it is for the plants. Keeping the 
pods picked off, as they begin to grow, will prolong and 
promote flowering. A little bone-meal worked into the sur- 
face of the soil, among the plants, also has a good effect. 
• Varieties of the Sweet Pea have become very numerous, and 
the list changes from year to year. (See writings of Hutch- 
ins, and Cornell Bulletins 111 and 127.) 

Trop^olum majus, Hh. Well known, commonly under the 
name of Nasturtiums. Flowers buff, pink, orange and scar- 
let. 10 or 12 feet. T. peregrinum is the "Canary Bird 
Flower," and is of more delicate appearance than the 
ordinary kinds. Flowers pale yellow, fringed. Leaves pal- 
mately lobed. Leaf climbers. Sow the Tropasolums, espe- 
cially T. peregrinum, if possible, in March, in a tempera- 
ture of 55° *o 60°. They may also be sown in the garden 
where they are to grow, when it is safe. Give them 
rich, light soil. 



BULBS AND TUBERS 267 

5. Bulbous and Tuberous Plants 

THE FALL- PLANTED BULBS 

All kinds of bulbs are partial to a deep, rich, well- 
drained soil. This is no small part of their successful 
culture. The site selected should be well -drained, either 
naturally or artificially. Again, in flattish lands, the 
beds may be made above the surface, some 18 inches 
high, and bordered with grass. A layer of rough stones 
a foot deep is sometimes used in the bottom of ordinary 
beds for drainage, and with good results, where other 
methods are not convenient. The soil for beds should 
be well enriched with old manure. Fresh manure should 
never be used in the soil about bulbs, The addition of 
leaf-mold and some sand also improves the texture of 
heavy soils. For Lilies the leaf-mold may be omitted. 
Let the spading be at least a foot deep. Eighteen inches 
will be none too deep for Lilies. 

The bulbs should be ordered some time in advance, if 
possible, and are to be planted from September to the 
middle of November. All kinds of bulbs look best 
planted in masses, or at least in groups. Details as to 
the time, depth and distance apart will be found under 
the several kinds mentioned below. 

During planting or previously, the surface of the beds 
should be made somewhat rounding, to prevent water 
standing on them in winter, which is always likely to 
work damage. A layer of sand below the surface, or a 
generous handful about each bulb, will also materially 
assist in carrying away water from the bulbs. 

As the time of severe winter freezing approaches, the 
ground planted to bulbs should receive a mulch of leaves, 
manure, or litter, to the depth of four inches or more, 
according to the latitude. It will be well to let the 
mulch extend one foot or more beyond the border of 



268 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

the beds. When cold weather is past, half of the mulch 
should be removed. The remainder may be left on till 
there is no longer danger of frost. Upon removing the 
last of the mulch, lightly work over the surface of the 
soil among the bulbs with a thrust-hoe. If the weather 
happens to be very bright during the blooming season, 
the duration of the flowers may be prolonged by light 
shading— as with muslin, or slats placed above the beds. 
If planted where they have partial shade from surround- 
ing trees or shrubbery, the beds will not need attention 
of this kind. 

Lilies, and other flowers which will be mentioned below, 
may remain undisturbed for years. Others will be greatly 
benefited, and afford more satisfactory results, if taken 
up and replanted every two or three years. Crocuses 
and Tulips may stand two years, but Hyacinths should 
be taken up each year and replanted, as will be ex- 
plained. Tulips also will be better for the same treat- 
ment. 

Bulbs which are to be taken up, or removed in the 
spring, should be left in the ground after flowering, till 
the foliage turns yellow, or dies down naturally. This 
gives the bulbs a chance to ripen. Cutting off the 
foliage and digging too early is a not uncommon and 
serious mistake. Bulbs which have been planted in the 
border, or in beds, and which are wanted for summer 
bedding-plants, may be dug with the foliage on and 
"heeled-in" under a tree, or along a fence, to stand till 
ripened. The foliage should be injured as little as possi- 
ble, as the foliage of this year makes the flowers of the 
next. When the foliage has turned yellow or died down, 
the bulbs — after cleaning, and curing them for a few 
hours in the sun — may be stored in the cellar or other 
cool, dry place, to await fall planting. 

Following are the chief kinds of bulbs for setting in 
the fall: 



RAISING BULBS 269 

Hyacinths. The bulbs of Hyacinths may be planted from Octo- 
ber till freezing weather. Set them from 4 to 5 inches 
deep — a little shallower in heavy soils — and about 4 to 6 
inches apart. They are not quite hardy at the North unless 
protected, so should always have a winter mulch where the 
ground freezes hard in winter. Hyacinth bulbs are all 
imported. Over 200 varieties are extensively grown, but 
many of the varieties are very similar. Most any of the 
single sorts are readily forced. Generally speaking, the 
singles are preferable. For bedding purposes, medium or 
small-sized bulbs are preferable and cheaper. 
Tulips. September is the best time for planting these, but 
as the beds are usually occupied at this time, planting 
will have to be postponed till October or November. For 
garden culture the Single Early Tulips are the best. There 
are Early Double-flowered varieties also. Some pi'efer the 
double, PS their flowers last longer. Late Tulips are gor- 
geous, but occupy the beds too long in the spring. Tulips 
are quite hardy, but are benefited by the winter mulch. 
For simple designs in colors, they are the most brilliant in 
effect of all bulbs. In working out such patterns, the utmost 
care should be used to have the lines and curves uniform, 
which is only to be secured by marking out the design, and 
careful planting. Foi'mal planting is, however, hj no means 
necessary for pleasing effects. Borders, lines and masses of 
single colors, or groups of mixed colors which harmonize, are 
always in order and pleasing. Clear colors are preferable to 
neutral tints. As varieties vary in height and season of bloom- 
ing, only named varieties should be ordered. 
Crocus. The Crocus is useful as a border-plant for other beds, 
for small groups, or beds to itself. It loves a sunny situa- 
tion and a well-drained soil. Two kinds are commonly cul- 
tivated. One is the Autumn Crocus (C. sativus). The 
other is the spring-flowering (C versicolor). The latter is 
the more popular. The bulbs should be planted as early as 
possible, and not later than the first of October, if it can be 
avoided. They grow if kept out of the ground, and will, 
therefore, suffer when planted late. It is advisable to get 
the best corms, and those under name. 
Narcissus. Daffodils, Jonquils and the Poet's Narcissus, all 




19(5. Tulips, the warmest of spring flowers. 



RAISING BULBS 271 

are perfectlj^ hardy. The polyanthus section, however, which 
includes the Paper-white Narcissus, and Sacred Lily or 
Chinese Joss-Flower, are not hardy except with unusually 
good protection, and are, therefore, most suitable for grow- 
ing indoors. It is common to allow the hardy sorts to take 
care of themselves when once planted. This they will do, 
but mvich more satisfactory results will be had by lifting 
and dividing the clumps every three or four years. A single 
bulb in a few years forms a large clump. In this condition 
the biilbs are not pi'operly nourished, and consequently do 
not flower well. Lifting is preferably done in August or 
September, when the foliage has died down and the bulbs 
are ripe. 
These flowers are well suited to pai'tially shaded places, and 
will grow and please wherever good taste may place them. 
They should be freely used, as they are fragrant, bright of 
color, and easily managed — growing among shrubbery, trees, 
and in places where other flowers would refuse to grow. They 
should l)e planted in clumps or masses, in September or Octo- 
ber, setting the bulbs from 5 to 8 inches apai't, according to 
size, and 3 or 4 inches deep. If necessary to move them in 
the spring, follow the instructions pi-eviously mentioned under 
Bulbs. Several species and numberless varieties, both double 
and single, are grown. A few good types only can be men- 
tioned. 
Daffodils, or Trumpet Narcissus. 

Single-floxvered, Yellow. — Golden Spur, Trumpet Major. 
PT/ufe.— Albicans. 

White and 1>//om'. — Empress, Horsefleldi. 
Double-flowering, I^e?/oir. — Incompai'able fl. pi., Von Sion. 
White.— A\\i2i plena odorata. 
Poet's Narcissus, or Daffodil. Flowers white, with yellow 

cups edged crimson. Very fragrant. 
Jonquils. These have vei'y fragrant yellow flowers, both 

double and single, and are old garden favorites. 
Polyanthus Narcissus. These will be mentioned under the 
chapter on window gardening. 
Snow-drop {Galanthiis nivalis). These are well known. The 
snow is scarcely gone before they appear. When once 
planted, they may remain for years. Plant thick, in 



272 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

groups or masses in the boi'der, or scatter them about the 
lawns. September or October is the proper season. 
Chionodoxa, Spikes of intense blue flowers, coming with 
Snow-drops, and lasting a long time in perfection. Plant 
them like Snow-drops, as early in the fall as the bulbs 
can be ODtained. 
SciLLA {ScUIa Sihirica). Also known as the Star Hyacinth. 
Flowers blue, coming early, like the last. They may be 
used like Snow-drops. The bulbs should be planted 2 
inches deep, in October, to remain undisturbed thereafter. 
Winter Aconite {Emnthis hyemalis). Bright yellow blos- 
soms, appearing even before the Snow-drops, and continu- 
ing in flower for several weeks. Perfectly hardy, growing 
about 3 inches high. Plant them as soon as obtained. 
They require little attention after once planting. All of 
the last four genera will grow in any garden soil. 
LiLY-OF-THE-VALLEY {ConvallaHa) . These are of the easiest 
culture, and no garden is complete without them. All that 
is necessary is some shade and a good loamy or sandy 
soil. The pips may be planted any time from Novem- 
ber on. 
Lilies. If good drainage is provided, Lilies will grow in 
any ordinary, fairly rich soil. The instructions previously 
given may be followed, but it is not necessary to make the 
soil as light as is sometimes done. Deep working, how- 
ever, is always desirable; 18 inches, or even 2 feet, will 
be none too deep. A layer of sand, or a handful placed 
about each bulb, is excellent practice. For all Lilies it 
is safer to provide good winter protection in the form of a 
mulch of leaves or manure, and extending beyond the bor- 
ders of the planting. This should be from 5 inches to 
a foot deep, according to the latitude or locality. 
Where Lilies are to be moved from one part of the grounds 
to another, it may be done carefully in the spring after growth 
has started. They should be guarded against becoming dry, 
and replanted as quickly as possible. Most of the Lilies like 
partial shade. Planting them where they will be shaded from 
the hot noon-day sun by shrubbery, trees, or buildings, not 
only tends to improve the flowers, but helps to make the soil 
more comfortable for the bulbs during the summer. The well- 



LILIES 273 

known L. candidum is an exception, preferring an open 

situation. Plant the bulbs of Lilies in October or November, 

excepting L. candidum and I/, excelsum,. L. auratum, should 

be set 10 or 12 inches deep; the others from 4 to 6. Some 

of the best kinds are mentioned below: 

L. CANDIDUM (Annunciation Lily). White. 3 to 4 feet high. 
It makes an autumn growth, and should, therefore, be planted 
in August. Set the bulbs from 4 to G inches deep. 

L. SPECIOSUM {L. lancifoimm), var. precox. White, tinged 
with pink; bearing several flowers on a stem about 3 feet 
high. 
L. SPECIOSUM var. kubrum. Rose color, spotted with red. 

L. Brownii. Flowers white inside, chocolate-colored outside. 
The stems grow about 3 feet high, bearing from 2 to 4 
tubular flowers. Not difficult to manage with good protec- 
tion and drainage. The bulbs are impatient of being long 
kept out of the ground. After planting, they should not be 
disturbed as long as they flower well. 

L. Hansoni. Dark yellow. Stems 3-4 feet high; each produc- 
ing from 6 to 12 flowers. 

L. EXCELSUM (L. IsabelUnum). Rich buff color, with delicate 
spots. Plants about 3-5 feet high, with from 3 to a dozen 
flowers on a stem. Plant the bulbs in September. 

L. LONGiFLORUM. White. Large tubular flowers, 2 to 8 on a 
stem. Height about 2K feet. 

L. Batemann:^. Apricot yellow. Six to 12 flowers on 
stems 3-4 feet high. 

L. AURAJUM (Japanese Gold-banded Lily). Immense white 
flowers banded with yellow and dotted with red or purple, 
from 3 to 12 on a stem. Height, 3-4 feet. The bulbs 
need thorough protection, good drainage, and should be 
planted 10 or 12 inches deep. 

L. Leichtlinii. Flowers clear j-ellow, with small, dark spots, 
10 to 12 on a stem. Height, 4 feet. 

L. MONADELPHUM. Ycllow tubular-shaped flowers in clusters 
of G to a dozen or more. Stems 2}4 feet tall. 

L. ELEGANS {L. Thunbergianiim) , var. Alice Wilson. Lemon- 
yellow. Stems 2 feet high, bearing from 2 to 8 flowers. 
L. ELEGANS, var. FULGENS ATROSANGUiNEUM. Dark crimson. 
Height 1 foot. 

R 



274 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 



SUMMER BULBS AND TUBERS 

Gladiolus. Of summer and fall-blooming bulbous plants 

these are, perhaps, the most widely popular. The showy 

kinds cultivated are, with i*are exceptions, hybrids or their 

descendants. The colors range from scai'let and purple, to 

white, rose, and pure yellow. The plants are of slender, 

erect habit, growing from 2 to 3 feet high. They dislike a 

heavy clay soil. A light loam or sandy soil suits them best. 

They should have a new place every year, if possible, and 

always an open sunny situation. 

The corms may be planted 2 inches deep in heavy soils, 

and 4 in light soils. For a succession, they may be planted at 

short intervals, the earliest planting being of smaller corms 

in the early spring as soon as the soil is dry enough to work; 

later the larger are to be planted — the last setting being not 

later than the Fourth of July. This last planting will afford 

fine late flowers. 

The successive plantings may be in the same bed among 
those set earlier, or they may be grouped in iinoccupied nooks, 
or portions of the boi'der. The plants may stand as close as 
6 inches from each other. The earlier planting may be — say 
a foot apart to admit of later settings between. 

Late in the fall, after frosts, the corms are to be dug, cleaned, 
and dried in the sun and air for a few hours and then stored 
away in boxes about 2% inches deep in a cool, dark and dry 
place. 

The varieties are perpetuated and multiplied by the little 
corms which appear about the base of the large new corm 
which is formed each year. These small corms may be 
taken off in the spring and sown thickly in drills. Many of 
them will make flowering plants by the second season. They 
are treated like the large corms in the fall. 

Gladioli are easily grown from seed also, but this method 
can not be depended on to perpetuate desirable varieties, which 
can only be reproduced by the cormels. Some of the best flow- 
ers may be cross-pollinated, or allowed to form seed in the 
usual manner— the seed sown thickly in drills, and shaded till 
the plantlets appear, then carefully cultivated, will afford a 



GLADIOLUS AND DAHLIA 275 

crop of small conns iu the fall. These may be stored for the 
winter, like the other young corms, and, like them, many will 
flower the second season, affording a great variety, and quite 
likely some new and striking kinds. Those which do not flower 
should be reserved for further trial. They often prove finer 
than those first to flower. 

Gladiolus Childsii is the name under which is being sent out 
a set of tall -growing varieties with very large flowers. Of 
their merits the writer is not as yet prepared to speak per- 
sonally. The Lemoine and Leichtlinii hybrids are interesting 
and show some handsome forms, but on the whole are, per- 
haps, not as desirable for general purposes as some other 
varieties. 
Dahlia. Of showy plants for the garden, there are none more 
easily cultivated. The double or Show Dahlias require 
only plenty of food and moisture, while the single and 
other kinds, the writer has found, will gi'ow and flourish in 
almost any soil, and under any of the conditions ordinarily 
met with in the garden. 
The various sorts may be grouped into five classes. The 
Show Dahlia is the large familiar double-flowered type. The 
Pompon or Bouquet Dahlias have smaller double flowers, 
and dwarf er habit. The Cactus Dahlia has flowers with broad, 
flat florets, which are somewhat twisted, giving them a charac- 
teristic and striking appearance. It is a recent type. The 
Single Dahlias have handsome single flowers of many brilliant 
colors and styles of variegation. The Dwai-f, or Bedding class, 
is mainly single, and grows only 1 or 2 feet high. They 
are very free of bloom and desirable for the purpose indicated 
by their name. 

One objection to the old Dahlia was its lateness of bloom. 
But by starting the roots early in a frame, or in boxes which 
are covered up at night, the plants may be had in flower, 
several weeks earlier than usual. They may be stai-ted in 
April, or at least three weeks in advance of planting time. 
Before, or shortly after starting the roots, they should be 
divided with a stout knife so that a piece of old stem, with 
a bud, will be attached to each tuber. These are then set in 
the box in the moist earth. Little water will be required 
till they start. When they begin shooting up, the plants 



276 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

should have the full sun, and air, on all mild daj^s. They 
will then make a slow, sturdy growth. All forcing should 
be avoided. These plants, set out when tho.re is no longer 




197. A modern dahlia and its ancestor. Each half size. 



danger of frost, and well watered before completely covering 
the roots, will grow right on, and often commence blooming 
in July. 

Dormant roots may be set out in May. The roots, unless 
small, should be divided before planting, as a single strong 
root is usually better than a whole clump. The roots of all 
but the Dwarf should be set about 3 feet apart, in rows. 
In poor soils none but the first class will need stakes. All 
but these the writer prefers to grow in rather poor soil, and 



DAHLIA AND TUBEROSE 277 

not water * unless absolutely necessary. They then have a 
dwarfer habit, and if the flowers are not so large, the plants 
begin to bloom soon and flower profusely. For the finest 
flowers, however, with any of the Dahlias, a rich and deep 
soil, with good cultivation and artificial watering during the 
summer, are the requisites. Staking will also be necessary. 

The 'roots may be left in the ground till the approach of 
freezing weather, and for a week after the tops have been cut 
by the fro«t. When dug they should be left out, exposed to 
the sun and air for a couple of days to dry, covering them at 
night if the weather is frosty. The dry soil having been 
shaken off, the roots may be stored away in a dry, cool 
place. Any place that would answer for potatoes will keep 
Dahlia roots. 

In addition to multiplication by division, as previously men- 
tioned, Dahlias are also easily propagated by seeds, and cut- 
tings of the tender shoots. The latter should always be cut 
just below a joint, so that there will be a pair of buds near 
the lower end of the cutting. For further information and 
varieties, consult Peacock on "The Dahlia", and Cornell 
Bulletin 128. 

Tuberose, This plant, with its tall spikes of waxen and 
fragrant white flowers, is well known. It is a strong feeder, 
and loves warmth, plenty of water while growing, and a 
deep, rich and well-drained soil. 

The bulbs may be set out in the garden or border the last 
of May or in June, covering them about one inch deep. Pre- 
paratory to planting, the old, dead roots at the base of the bulb 
should be cut away and the pips or young bulbs about the sides 
removed. After keeping them till their scars are dried over, 
these pips may be planted 5 or G inches apart in drills. 
With good soil and cultivation they will make blooming bulbs 
for the following year. 

Before planting the large bulbs, it may be well to examine 
the points, to determine whether they are likely to bloom. The 
tuberose blooms but once. If there is a hard, woody piece of 
old stem in the midst of the dry scales at the apex of the bulb, 
it has bloomed, and is of no value except for producing pips. 
LikeM'ise if, instead of a solid core, there is a brownish, dry 
cavity extending from the tip down into the middle of the bulb, 



27<S PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

the heart has rotted or dried up, and the bulb is worthless as 
far as blooming is concerned. 

Bulbs of blooming size set in the border in June flower 
toward the close of September. They may be made to flower 
three or four weeks sooner by starting them early in some 
warm place, where they may be given a temperature of about 
GO^ to 70°. Prepai-e the bulbs as above, and place theto with 
their tips just above the surface in about 3 or 4-inch pots, in 
light, sandy soil. Water them thoroughly, afterwards sparingly, 
till the leaves have made considerable growth. These plants 
may be turned out into the open ground the last of May or in 
June, and will probably flower in early September. 

Just before frost dig up the bulbs, cut off the tops to within 
2 inches of the apex of the bull). They may then be placed in 
shallow boxes and left out in the sun and air for a week or 
more, to cure. Each evening, if the nights are cold, they should 
be removed to some room where the temperature will not fall 
])elow 40°. When the outer scales have become dry, the re- 
nuiining soil may be shaken off and the bulbs stored away in 
sli allow boxes for the winter. They keep best in a temperature 
of 4.5° to ,50°. It should never fall below 40°. 

The Dwarf Pearl, originating in 1870, has long been popular, 
and is still s) with many. But others, the writer included, 
have come to prefer the old, tall kind, tlie flowers of which, 
even if not so large, are perfect in form and seem to open 
better. 

6. Hardy Herbaceous Perennials 

The delights of the herbaceous border have already 
been laid before the reader. (See pages 145-147, 217- 
220), but details may be useful. 

Perennial herbs are propagated in various ways, — by 
seeds, and by cuttings of the stems and roots, but mostly 
by the easy method of division. The seed must often 
be sown as soon as ripe, as it is slow of germination; and 
it often takes from 2 to 4 years to grow blooming plants 
in this way. 

To facilitate making a selection, the plants in the fol- 
lowing list are arranged according to their blooming sea- 



PLANTS FOR THE BORDER 279 

son, beginning with the earliest. The name of the month 
indicates when they usually commence to bloom. In most 
cases both the scientific''^ and popular names are given; 
then follows the height; next the flowering season; and 
lastly, the color of the flowers, and other items. The 
descriptions are necessarily brief. It should be understood 
that the blooming season of plants is not a fixed period, 
but varies more or less with localities and seasons. 
These dates are applicable to most of the middle and 
northerTi states. 

LIST OF HARDY BORDER PLANTS 

March 

Anemone hlanda (Blue Wind-flower). 6 in. March-May. Sky- 
bhie star-like flowers. Foliage deeply cut. For border and 
rockwork. 

Sangninaria Canadensis (Bloodroot). 6 in. March-April. Pure 
white. Glaucous foliage. Partial shade. Border or rock- 
work. 

April 

Arabis alhida (Mountain Rock-cress). 6 in. April-June. 
Flowers pure white; close heads iu profusion. Fragrant. 
For dry places and rock-work. 

Aubrietia deltoidea (Purple Rock-cress). G in. April-June. 
Small purple flowers in great profusion. 

Bellis perennis (Daisy). 4-6 in. April-July. Flowers white, 
pink or red; single or double. The double varieties are 
the more desirable. Cover the plants in winter with leaves. 
May be raised from seed, like pansies. 

Claytonia Vlrglnica (Spring Beauty). Gin. April-May. Clus- 
ters of light pink flowers. Partial shade. From six to a 
dozen should be set together. 



*The scientific or botanical names are given only for the purpose of 
enabling the reader to find the plants in catalogues and books, not for 
the purpose of expressing any opinion as to the proper nomenclature 
of the plants. 



280 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Dodecatheon 3Ieadia (Sliooting Star). 1 ft. April-May. Red- 
dish piirple flowers, orange-yellow eye, in clusters. Cool, 
shady location. Plant several in a place. 

Dorotiicitm plantagineum var. exceJsnm (Dog's-bane.) 20 in. 
April-June. Large, showy flowers; orange-yellow. Bushy 
plants. 

Hepatica acutiloba (Liver Leaf). 6 in. April-Ma5\ Flowers 
small but numerous, varying white and pink. Partial shade. 

Iheris sempervirens (Hardy Candytuft). 10 in. April-Maj'. 
Small white flowers in clusters; profuse. Large, spreading 
evergreen tufts. 

Lychnis alpina (Alpine Lamp-flowerj. 6 in. April-May. 
Flowers star-like, in showy heads; pink. For border and 
rockery. 

3fyosofis disslfijiora (Early Forget-me-not). 6 in. April-June. 
Small clusters of deep sky-bhie flowers. Tufted habit. 

M. lyalustris var. semperflorens (Everblooming F.). 10 in. 
Light blue; spreading habit. 

Mertensia Virginica (Blue Bells). 1 ft. April-May. Flowers 
blue, changing to pink ; pendent; tubular; not showy, but 
beautiful. Rich soil. Partial shade. 

Pa'onia Moutaii (Tree Paeony). See May, Paeonia. 

Phlox suhnlafa (Moss Pink). G in. April-June. Numerous 
deep-pink, small flowers; creeping habit; evergreen. Suit- 
able for dry places as a covering plant. 

Trilliunis. Of several species; are always attractive and use- 
ful in the border. (Fig. 198.) They are common in rich 
woods and copses. Dig the tubers in late summer and plant 
them directly in the border. The large ones will bloom 
the following spring. The same may be said of the ery- 
thronium, or dog's-tooth violet or adder' s-tongue (Fig. 199), 
and of very many other early wild flowers. 



May 

Ajuga reptans. 6 in. May-June. Spikes of purple flowers. 

Grows well in shady places; spreading. A good cover 
plant. 

Alys.sum saxatile var. compactum (Madwort). 1 ft. May- 
June. Flowers fragrant; in clusters; clear golden-yellow. 




198. Tbe wild Trillium grandiliorum. 



282 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 




199. Erytlironivim Amerieanum, half size. 



Foliage silvery. Well-drained soil. One of the best yellow 

flowers. 
Aquilegia glandulosa and others (Columbine). Fig. 200. 1 

foot. May-June. Deep-blue sepals; white petals. Aqui- 

legias are old favorites. (See June.) 
Convallaria majalis (Lily-of-the-Valley). 8 in. May-June. 

Racemes of small white bells; fragrant. Well-known. 

Partial shade. (See page 272.) 
Corydalis nobilis (Fumitory). 1 ft. May-June. Large 

clusters of fine yellow flowers. Bushy, upright habit. 

Does well in partial shade. 



HARDY BORDER PLANTS 283 

Dicevtra specfabllis (Bleeding-Heart). 2}4 ft. May-June. 
Well known. Racemes of heart-shaped, deep-pink and 
white flowers. Will bear partial shade. 

Iris crisfafa (Crested Iris). 6 in. May-June. Flowers blue, 
fringed with yellow. Leaves sword-shaped. 

/. Germanica (German Iris). 12-15 in. Maj^-June. Numer- 
ous varieties and colors. Large flowers, 3-4 on a stem. 
Broad, glaucous, sword-shaped leaves. 

Pieonia officinalis (Paeonia). 2 ft. May-June. This is the 
well-known Herbaceous Pseonia. There are numerous varie- 
ties and hybrids. Lai'ge flowers, 4-6 inches across. Crim- 
son, White, Pink, Yellow, etc. Suitable for lawn or the 
l)order. 

P. Moutan (Tree Paponia). 4 ft. April-May. Numerous 
named varieties. Flowers as above, excepting yellow. 
Branched, dense, shrubby habit. 

Salvia })rate)ise (Meadow Sage). 2}4 ft. May-June, August, 
Spikes of deep blue flowers. Branching from the ground. 

Achillea Ptarmica, J!. j)l., var. "The Pearl." 1-2 ft. June- 
August. Small, double white flowers, in few-flowered 
clusters. Rich soil. 

June 

Anemone Pennsylvanica (Wind-flower). 18 in. June-Sep- 
tember. White flowers on long stems. Erect habit. 
Does well in the shade. 

Anthericum Uliasfrxm (St. Bruno's Lily). 18 in. June-July. 
Bell-like, white flowers in handsome spikes. 

Aquilegia chrijsautha (Golden-spurred Columbine). 3 ft. 
June-August. Golden flowers with slender spurs; fragrant. 

A. cmrnlea (Rocky Mountain Columbine). 1 ft. June-August. 
Flowers with white petals and deep-blue sepals, 2-3 inches 
in diameter. (See May.) 

Aspernla oclorata (Woodruff). 6 in. June-July. Small 
white flowers. Herbage fragrant when wilted. Does well in 
shade; spreading habit. Used for flavoring drinks, scent- 
ing and protecting garments. 

Asfilhe Japonica (Incorrectly called Spiraea). 2 ft. June- 
July. Small white flowers in a feathery infloi'escence. 
Compact habit. 







mi 






200. Common wild columbin 



e. Handsome in cultivation. 



HARDY BORDER PLANTS 



285 




201. Campanula carpatliica. 



202. Canterbury Bell. 



Callirlioe invoJucrata (Poppy Mallow). 10 in. June to Octo- 
ber. Large crimson flowers, with white centers. Trailing 
habit. For border and rockery, 

Cawpannla Carpathica (Carpathian Harebell). Fig. 201. 8 in. 
June-September. Flowers deep blue. Tufted habit. For 
border or rockery. Good for cutting. 

C. glomerata var. Dahnrica. 2 ft. June-August. Deep pur- 
ple flowers in terminal clusters. Branching from the ground. 
Erect habit. 

C. Mediuw, (Canterbury Bell) (Fig. 202). Is an old favorite. 
It is biennial, but blooms the first season if sown early. 

Corydalis lutea. 1 ft. June-September. Flowers yellow, in 
terminal clusters. Loose branching habit. Glaucous foliage. 



286 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Dianthns plumarins (Scotch Pink). 10 in. June-July. White 

and pink-ringed flowers on slender stems. Densely tufted 

habit. 
1). siiperbus (Fringed Pink). 18 in. July-August. Fringed 

flowers. Lilac tint. 
Dictamnus Fraxinella (Gas Plant). 3 ft. June. Flowers pur- 
ple, showy, fragrant; in long spikes. Regular habit. 
/>.— var. alha. White. 
Gaillardia aristata. 2 ft. June-October. Showy orange and 

maroon flowers on long stems. Good for cutting. Hybrid 

gaillardias offer quite a variety of brilliant colors. 
Ileuchera sanguinea. 18 in. June-September. P"'lowers in 

open panicles; scarlet, o:i clustered stems from a tufted 

mass of pretty foliage. 
Iris Ka'm2)feri (Japan Iris). 2-3 ft. June-July. Large flowers 

of various colors, in variety. Green sword-like leaves. Dense 

tufted habit. Prefers a moist situation. 
Liatris spicata (Blazing Star). 2 ft. June-August. Spikes 

of fine, small purple flowers. Slender foliage. Unbranched, 

erect stems. Will grow in the poorest soil. 
Papaver nudicatde (Iceland Poppy). 1 ft. June-October. 

Bright yellow flowers. A close, dense habit. Erect, naked 

stems. The varieties Album, white, and Miniatum, last 

deep orange, are also desirable. 
P. orieutale (Oriental Poppy). 2-4 ft. June. Flowers G-8 

in. across; deep scai'let, with a purple spot at the base of 

each petal. There are other varieties of pink, orange and 

crimson shades. 
Pentstemon harhatus var. Torreyi. 3-4 ft. June-September. 

Crimson flowers in long spikes. Branching fi-om the base. 

Erect habit. 
Phlox paniculata (Perennial Phlox). 2-3 ft. June. A great 

variety of colors in selfs and variegated forms. Flowers 

borne in large, flat panicles, 
Sudbeckia maxima. 5-6 ft. August. Large flowers; cone-like 

center and long, drooping yellow petals. 
Spiriea Filipendula (Dropwort). 3 ft. June-July. White 

flowers in compact clusters. Tufted foliage, dark green and 

handsomely cut. Erect stems. 
Yucca filamentosa (Adam's Needle). 4-5 ft. June-July. 



HARDY BORDER PLANTS 287 

Waxen white, pendulous, liliaceous flowers in a great thyrsus. 
Leaves long, narrow, dark-green, with marginal filaments. 
For the lawn, and for massing in large grounds. 

July 

AUhcfa rosea (Hollyhock). 5-8 ft. Summer and fall. Flowers 
white, crimson, and yellow, lavender and purple. Stately 
plants of spire-like habit; useful for the back of the border, 
or beds and groups. The newer double varieties have 
flowers as fine as a camellia. The plant is a biennial, but in 
rich, well-drained soil and with some winter pi'otection it 
becomes perennial. Easily grown from seed, blooming the 
second year. Seeds may be sown in August in frames and 
carried over winter in the same place. The first year's 
bloom is visually the best. 

Anthemis iixcforia (Yellow Chamomile). 12-18 in. July-No- 
vember. Flowers bright yellow, 1-2 inches in diameter. 
Useful for cutting. Dense, bushj^ habit. 

Delphinium Chinense. 3 ft. July-September. Variable colors; 
from deep blue to lavender and white. Fine for the border. 

v. fonnosiim. 4 ft. July-September. Fine spikes of rich 
blue flowers. One of the finest blue flowers cultivated. 

Fnnkia Jancifolia. (See under August.) 

HeJianthns nmltiflorus var. fl. pi. 4 ft. July-September. 
Large double flowers, of a fine golden color. Erect habit. 
A splendid flower. 

Lychnis Viscaria var. Jfore pleno. 12-15 in. July- August. 
Double, deep, rose-red flowers in spikes. For groups and 
masses. 

Monarda didyma. 2 ft. July-October. Showy scarlet flowers 
in terminal heads. 

Pentstemou grandiflorus. 2 ft. July-August. Leafy spikes of 
showy purple flowers. 

P. loevigatus var. Digitalis. 3 ft. July-August. Pure white 
flowers in spikes, with purple throats. 

Platycodon grand i flora {Campanula grandiflora). 3 ft. July- 
September. Deep blue, bell-shaped flowers. Dense, fine, 
erect habit. 

P. Mariesii. 1 ft. July-September. Flowers larger; deep 
violet-blue. Heavier foliage. 



288 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 



August 

Fmikla subcordata (Day Lily). 18 in. August-October. 
Trumpet, lily-like, pure white flowers in clusters, borne upon 
a stalk from the midst of a group of heart-shaped green 
leaves. 

I\ lancifoUa var. alba-marginata. July-August. Lavender 
flowers. Lance-like leaves margined with white. 

Kniphofia aloides, Tritoma uvaria (Flame Flower). 3 ft. 
August-September. Bright orange- scarlet flowers, in close, 
dense spikes, at the summit of several scape-like stems. 
Leaves slender, forming a large tuft. For lawn and borders. 
Hardy only when covered with litter or straw in winter. 

Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower). 23^-4 ft. August-Sep- 
tember. Flowers intense cardinal-red; of unrivaled bril- 
liancy. Tall spikes. Stems clustered; erect. Native. 

Pijvethrum tdiginostim (Giant Dai:>y). 3-5 ft. July-October. 
Flowers white, with golden centers. About 2 in. across. 
A stout, upright, bushy plant. Useful for cutting. 

Budbeckia triloba, var. "Golden Glow." 6-7 ft. August-Sep- 
tember. Large double golden yellow flowers in great pro- 
fusion. Bushy habit. Cut off when done flowering. Leaves 
appear at the base and a new crop of flowers, on stems about 
1 ft. high appear, in October. 

Solidago rigida (Golden-Rod). 3-5 ft. August-October. 
Flowers large for this genus, in close, short racemes in a 
corymbose-paniculate cluster. Fine, deep yellow. Erect habit. 
One of the best of the Golden-Rods. 

September 

Anemone Japonica (Japanese Wind-flower). 2 ft. August- 
October. Flowers large, bright red. One of the best autumn 
flowers. 

A. Japonica, var. alba. Flowers pure white, with yellow cen- 
ters. Fine for cutting. 

October 
Chrysanthemums. The Chinese and Japanese Chrysanthemums, 
so well known, are hardy in light, well-drained soils, if 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS 



289 



well protected with litter or leaves during the winter, and in 
such situations are hardy without protection south of In- 
dianapolis. Chrysanthemums are gross feeders, and should 
have a rich soil. 
There is a race of hardy or border chrysanthemums which is 
again coming into favor, and it is sure to give much satisfac- 
tion to those who desire flowers in latest fall. These chrys- 
anthemums are much like the "artemisias" of our mother's 
gardens, although improved in size, form, and in range of color. 




203. A protection for chrysanthemums. 



The growing of the florists' chrysanthemums is accomplished 
only under glass and with the outlay of considerable time and 
the application of skill; therefore the subject is not germane to 
this book. Very good plants can be grown under a temporary 
shed cover, as shown in Fig 203. The roof need not necessarily 
be of glass. Under such a cover, also, potted plants, in bloom, 
may be set for protection when the weather becomes too cold. 
Respecting the cultivation of chrysanthemums, Bailey writes as 
follows: "The growing of the plants to a single bloom does not 
produce the most decorative results. It merely gives large 
specimen blooms. I much prefer to grow from three to six 



290 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

blooms on a plant. The plants may be flowered in pots, or in 
a solid soil bench. Very good small plants may be brought to 
perfection in 6-inch pots, but the best results, in pot plants, 
are to be obtained in 8-inch or 10-inch pots. If the plants are 
to be used for decoration, they should, of course, be grown in 
pots, but the best results for cut-flowers are usually obtained 
by growing in the earth. In any case, the cuttings are made 
fi'om the tips of basal or strong lateral shoots, late in Febru- 
ary to May. If the plants are to be flowered in pots— in which 
case they usually mature earlier— the cuttings may be started as 
late as April, or even June; but if they are grown in the soil 
and large plants are desired, the cuttings should be taken in 
February or March. The plants which are flowered in the soil 
are generally grown in pots until July. The grower must 
decide how many blooms he desires on a plant, and then train 
the plant accordingly, bringing up the different branches .*o 
that they will all bloom at the same time." 

There is a large special literature on chrysanthemums. 
Current discussions may be found in the journals and in the 
Cornell bulletins. 

HARDY ORNAMENTAL GRASSES 

Arundo Donax (Great Reed Grass). 10 ft. Tall, straight 

stems; deep green. Broad, pointed foliage. 
A. Donax var. variegata. Foliage striped with white. Both 

of these at the North profit by protection with a mulch of 

litter or manure. 
Bambusa Metahe (Bamboo, syn. Arundlnaria). 4l-1 ft. Shrubby. 

much branched stems. Almost evergreen. 
Eriantlius Ravennce (Ravenna Grass). 4-7 ft. Forms hand- 
some clumps of foliage. 
Uulalia Japonica var. variegata (Japan Eulalia). 4-7 ft. 

Leaves longitudinally striped with white. 
E. Japonica var. zebrina (Zebra Grass). Leaves cross-barred 

with yellow bands. 
Festtica ovina var. glauca (Blue Fescue). 8 in. Foliage 

glaucous, forming pretty tufts. Useful as an edging. 
Panicum virgafum (Tall Prairie Grass). 4 ft. Culms slender 

and wand-like. Very graceful. 



HARDY CLIMBERS 291 

Phalaris amndinacea var. variegata (Striped Ribbon Grass). 

2>2 ft. Leaves variegated with bands of white. 
Stipa pinnata (Feather Grass). 18 in. Graceful slender 

plumes of silky down. Should have light, rich soil. 

7. Hardy Climbing Plants. 

There is scarcely a garden in which climbing plants 
may not be used to advantage. Sometimes it may be to 
conceal obtrusive objects, again to relieve the monotony 
of rigid lines. They may also be used to run over the 
ground and to conceal its nakedness where other plants 
could not succeed. The shrubby kinds are often useful 
about the borders of clumps of trees and shrubbery, to 
slope the foliage down to the grass, and soften or erase 
lines in the landscape, which is often desirable and 
necessary for the most pleasing effects. (See pages 
213, 214.) 

Of herbaceous climbers, the tops die in winter, while 
those of woody climbers live on from year to year. Only 
a few of each class will be mentioned. All climbers 
should have a rich soil if desired to climb high. 



HARDY HERBACEOUS CLIMBERS 

Apios tuberosa. 15-20 ft. July-August. Flowers brownish 

purple; in large clusters, with violet fragrance. Foliage 

similar to that of the wistaria. Roots tuberous. Plant 2 or 

3 together. 
Centrosema Virginiana (Butterfly Pea). 5-G ft. eJune-Au- 

gust. Purple and white pea-shaped flowers. 
Clematis coccinea (Scarlet Clematis). 5 ft. June-September. 

Flowers about 1 in. long, scarlet; glaucous foliage, delicate 

and graceful. 
C Davidiana. 3-4 ft. August-September. Porcelain-blue 

flowers of tubular outline. Dense bushj^ habit. 
G. tubulosa. 7 ft. August-September. About two weeks 

later than the last; otherwise similar. 



292 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Lathyrns latifoliiis (Perennial Pea), 6 ft. June-October. 

Flowers rose-color, on many-flowered stems. 
L. latifolius var. albus (White P. P.). Flowers pure white, 

otherwise same as the last. Useful for cutting. Both are 

fine for trellises, walls, and for covering. 



HARDY WOODY CLIMBERS (See, also, page 236) 

Acfinidia polygama. 20 ft. or more. June. White flowers, 
with purple centers; in axillary clusters; fragrant. Leaves 
entire, heavy, dark and glossy. Berries edible. Foliage 
immune from insects and diseases. For walls, trellises, 
screens. Very valuable. 

Akehia quinafa. 20 ft. or more. April. Chocolate colored, 
sweet-scented flowers, in clusters late in April. Leaves 
flve-fingered, stems twining. Fine for verandas. 

Ampelopsis bipinnata; properly Cissus stans. 1.5-20 feet or 
more. June. Compound cut leaves, dark, of a bluish 
metallic luster. Upright, scarcely twining. Fine for train- 
ing on fences, or as a bush. 

A. qninqnefoJia. 30-40 ft. June. Leaves digitate, on long 
leaf-stalks, turning scarlet in the fall. Climbing by tendrils 
and rootlets. For walls, rocks, etc. 

A. tricuspidata, or Veitchii (Japan and Boston Ivy). 40 ft. 
or more. Leaves varj'ing from trifoliate to simple, ovate on 
the same plant; on short stalks. Clinging like the last. 
The most valued climber for walls. Foliage crimson in the 
fall. 

Aristolochia SipJio (Dutchman's Pipe). 30 ft. or more. May- 
June. Flowers shaped like a Dutch pipe. Leaves large, 
roundish, heart-shaped. Stems twining. Should have rich 
soil. Arbors and trellises. 

Celastrus scandens (Bitter-Sweet). 25-40 ft. June. Leaves 
pointed; oblong; green. Stems twining. The racemed 
capsules orange-yellow, exposing the scarlet-coated seeds, 
which persist in quantity nearly all winter, making the plant 
an ornamental object. Arbors, trellises, etc 
C. artictdatiis (Japanese Bitter-Sweet). Fruit hangs long, 
but plant less desirable than above. 



HARDY CLIMBERS 293 

Clematis. There are two sections of this cultivated in gardens. 
One is composed of hybrids with large flowers (Fig. 185), 
the other has small flowers. Of the first section is 

C. Jackmanni. Climbs about 15 ft. high, and has large dark- 
blue flowers. A continuous bloomer. There are a number of 
other varieties, double and single, but this is, perhaps, the 
best of all. 

Of the small-flowered section is 

C. panknlata. Climbs 10-15 ft.; blooming from July-Sep- 
tember. Flowers small, white, fragrant, star-shaped; borne 
in masses and in great profusion. Fine for trellises and for 
covering banks. The best of the small-flowered sorts. 

Lonicera Halliana (Hall's Honeysuckle). 10-20 ft. June- 
October. Flowers white and buff; fragrant; mainly in 
spring and fall. Leaves small; evergreen. Stems prostrate 
and rooting, or twining and climbing. Trellises, etc., or 
for covering rocks and bare places. (Fig. 179.) 

L. flexuosa var. aurea reticulata (Golden Variegated Honey- 
suckle). 12-15 ft. January-July. Similar to the last; but 
with handsome golden appearance. 

L. Pericli/menum var. Belgicum (Belgian Honeysuckle). 6-10 
ft. Monthly. Flowers in clusters; rosy red, buff within. 
Makes a large, rounded bush. 

L. senipervirens (Coral Honeysuckle). 6-15 ft. June. Scatter- 
ing flowers through the summer. With no support makes a 
large rounded bush. For trellises, fences, or a hedge. 

Lycinm Ckinense (Matrimony Vine). 10-20 ft. or more. Flow- 
ering all summer. Flowers rose-pink and buff; axillary, 
star-like; succeeded by scarlet berries in the fall. Stems 
prostrate, or climbing. Verandas, etc., dry banks and rock- 
work. 

Periploca grieca (Silk Vine). 30-40 ft. June or July. Pur- 
plish flowers in axillary clusters. Long, narrow, shining 
leaves. Rapid growing. For arbors and walls. 

Tecoma radicans (Trumpet Creeper). 30-40 ft. June-August. 
Flowers large; trumpet-shaped; orange scarlet; in clusters. 
Leaves pinnate; dark green. Climbing by aereal rootlets. 
Fine for old stumps, trees and arbors. 

Wistaria Chinensis. 40-50 ft. May-Aiigust. Flowers pale 
blue, in pendulous racemes. Leaves dark gi*een, pinnate. 



\ 



294 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Stems twining. Fine for the piazza, the arbor, or the fence, 
but should not be allowed to grow on trees, as it will often 
cause the top to break off. 

8. The Rose 

The essentials of rose culture, after a thoughtful selec- 
tion of kinds and the purchase of strong plants, are a sunny 
situation, good drainage, a rich, deep soil, and intelligent 
care. 

The selection of kinds should be made in reference to 
the locality and purpose for which the roses are wanted. 
For bedding roses, those that are of free -blooming habit, 
even though the individual flowers are not large, are the 
ones which should be chosen. For permanent beds, the so- 
called hybrid perpetual or remontant roses, blooming prin- 
cipally in June, will be found to be hardy at the North. 
But if one can give them proper protection during the win- 
ter, then the Bengal, Tea, Bourbon, and Hybrid Teas, or 
Everblooming roses may be selected. 

In sections where the temperature does not fall below 
twenty degrees above zero, any of the monthly roses will 
live without protection. At the South the remontants and' 
other deciduous roses do not do as well as farther North. 
The tender climbers — Noisettes, Climbing Teas, Bengals, 
and others — are excellent for pillars, arbors, and verandas 
at the South ; but are fit only for the conservatory in those 
portions of the country w^here there is severe freezing. For 
the open air at the North we have to depend for climbing 
roses mainly on the Prairie Climbers; but we now have 
also the Crimson and Yellow Ramblers (Polj^anthas), with 
their recent pink and white varieties, all of which are said 
to be perfectly hardy. The trailing Bosa Wichuraiana is 
also a useful addition in the shape of an excellent hardy 
rose for rocky banks, etc. 

While roses delight in a sunny situation, our dry at- 
mosphere and hot summer suns are sometimes trying on 



ROSES 295 \ 

the flowers, as are severe wintry winds on the plants. 
While, therefore, it is never advisable to plant roses near 
large trees, or where they will be over -shadowed by 
buildings or surrounding shrubbery, some shade during 
the heat of the day will be a benefit. The best position 
is an eastern or northern slope, and w^here fences or other 
objects will break the force of strong winds, in those 
sections where such prevail. 

The best soil for roses is a deep and rich clay loam. 
If it is more or less of a fibrous character from the 
presence of grass roots, as is the case with newly plowed 
sod ground, so much the better. While such is desirable, 
any ordinary soil will answer, provided it is well-ma- 
nured. Cow manure is strong and lasting, and has no 
heating effect. It will cause no damage, even if not 
rotted. Horse -manure, however, should be well rotted 
before mixing it with the soil. The manure may be 
mixed in the soil at the rate of one part in four. If 
well rotted however, more will not do any damage, as 
the soil can scarcely be made too rich, especially for the 
Everblooming roses. 

In planting, care must be taken to avoid exposing the 
roots of roses to the drying influence of the sun or air. If 
dormant field-grown plants have been purchased, all broken 
and brui ed roots will need to be cut off smoothly and 
squarely. The tops also will need cutting back. The cut 
should always be made just above a bud, preferably on 
the outer side of the cane. Strong-growing sorts may 
be cut back one-fourth or one-half, according as they have 
good or bad roots. Weaker-growing kinds, like most of 
the Everblooming roses, should be cut back most severely. 
In both eases it is well to remove the weak growth first. 
Plants set out from pots will usually not need cutting 
back. For pruning a sharp knife is preferable to prun- 
ing-shears when it can be used, as the latter bruise the 
bark more or less. 



296 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Set open -ground plants about as deep as they stood pre- 
viously, excepting budded or grafted plants, which should 
be set so that the union between the stock and graft 
will be from three to four inches below the surface of 
the soil. Plants from pots may also be set an inch 
deeper than they stood in the pots. The soil should be 
in a friable condition. Roses like to have the soil com- 
pact immediately about their roots; but we should dis- 
tinguish between planting roses and setting fence posts. 
The dryer the soil the more firmly it may be pressed. 

Hardy roses, especially the strong field -grown plants, 
should be set in the early fall if practicable. It is de- 
sirable to get them out just as soon as they have shed 
their foliage. If not then, they may be planted in the 
early spring. At that season it is advisable to plant them 
as early as the ground is dry enough, and before the buds 
have started to grow. Dormant pot-plants may also be 
set out early, but they should be perfectly dormant. Set- 
ting them out early in this condition is preferable to 
waiting till they are in foliage and full bloom, as is so 
often required by buyers. Growing pot -plants may be 
planted any time during the spring after danger of frost 
is past, or even during the summer, if they are watered 
and shaded for a few days. 

North of the Ohio river all the Everblooming roses, even 
if they will endure the winter unprotected, will be better 
for protection. This may be slight southward, but should 
be thorough northward. The soil, location, and surround- 
ings, will often be a great help. If the situation is 
not so favorable, more protection will be necessary. 
Along the Ohio, a heap of stable manure, or light 
soil which does not become packed and water-logged, 
placed about the base of the plants, will carry over many 
of the Tea roses. The tops are killed back; but the 
plants sprout up from the base of the old branches in the 
spring. Bon Silene, Etoile de Lyon, Perle des Jardins, 



ROSES 297 

Mme. Camille, and others are readily wintered there in 
this way. 

About Chicago* beds have been successfully protected 
by bending down the tops, fastening them, and then 
placing over and among the plants a layer of dry leaves 
to the depth of a foot. The leaves must be dry, and the 
soil also, before applying them. This is very essential. 
After the leaves, a layer of lawn-clippings, highest at 
the middle, and 4 or 5 inches thick, placed over the 
leaves, holds them in place and sheds water. This pro- 
tection carries over the hardiest sorts of Everblooming 
roses, including the Teas. The tops are killed back when 
not bent down, but this protection saves the roots and 
crowns; when bent down, the tops went through without 
damage. Even the Climbing rose Gloire de Dijon was 
carried through the winter of 1894-5 at Chicago without 
the slightest injury to the branches. 

Strong plants of the Everblooming roses can now be had 
at very reasonable rates, and rather than go to the- trou- 
ble of protecting them in the fall, many buy such as they 
need for bedding purposes each spring. If the soil of the 
beds is well enriched, the plants make a rapid and lux- 
uriant growth, blooming freely throughout the summer. 

Pruning is an important matter in rose growing. 
Climbing and pillar roses need only the weak branches 
and the tips shortened in ; other hardy kinds will usually 
need cutting-back about one-fourth or one-third, according 
to the vigor of the branches, either in the spring or fall. 
A slight cutting-back also after their June flowering in 
the case of the Remontants, will encourage more flowers. 
Severe pruning, however, will only induce the growth of 
vigorous leafy shoots without flowers. The Everblooming 
roses will need to have all dead wood removed at the 
time of uncovering them in spring. Some pruning 



* American Florist x., No. 358, p. 929 (1895). See pages 58 to 67. 



29(S PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

during the summer is also useful in encouraging growth 
and flowers. The stronger branches which have flowered 
may be cut back one -half or more. The rule in trim- 
ming roses is, cut hack iveaJc-groivmg kinds severely ; 
strong growers moderately . 

Roses should be carefully taken up every four or five 
years, tops and roots cut in, and then reset, either in 
a new place or in the old, after enriching the soil with 
a fresh supply of manure, and deeply spading it over. In 
Holland roses are allowed to stand about eight years. 
They are then taken out and their places filled with 
young plants. 

ROSES FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 

The following classified lists embrace some of the va- 
rieties of recognized merit for various purposes. There 
are many others, but it is desirable to limit the list to a 
few good kinds. The intending planter should consult 
recent catalogues. 

Free-hlooming Monthly Roses for hedduig, — These are rec- 
ommended not for the individual beauty of the flower — 
although some are very fine — but because of their suitabil- 
ity for the purpose indicated. If to be carried over winter 
in the open ground, they need to be protected north of 
Washington. In beds, pegging down the branches will be 
found desirable. Those starred have been found hardy in 
Southern Indiana without protection, although they are 
more satisfactory with it. The name of the class to which 
the variety belongs is indicated by the initial letter or 
letters of the class name. (C, China; T., Tea; H. T., 
Hybrid Tea; B., Bourbon; Pol., Polyantha; N., Noisette; 
H. P., Hybrid Perpetual; Pr., Prairie Climber): 
Heel— Pink — 

Sanguinea, 0. *Hermosa, B. 

Agrippina, C. Souvenir d'un Ami, T. 

Marion Dingee, T. Pink Soupert, Pol. 

*Meteor, H. T. *Gen. Tartas, T. 



ROSES 



299 




204. Climbing Jules Margottiu. 

Blush- White - 

*Cels, C. *Clotilde Soupert, Pol. 

Mme. Joseph Schwartz, T. *Sombreuil, B. 

* Souvenir de la Malmaison, B. Snowflake, T. 

Mignonette, Pol. Pacquerette, Pol. 



Yellow— Yellow— {touXmwQA. 

* Isabella Spi'unt, T. La Pactole, T. 

Mosella (Yellow Soupert), Pol. Marie van Houtte, T. 



300 PLANTING THE ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS 

Free-dlooming Monthly Bases for summer cutting and 
beds. — These are somewhat less desirable for purely bed- 
ding-purposes than the preceding; but they afford finer 
flowers and are useful for their fine buds. Those starred 
are hardy in Southern Indiana without protection: 

Red— Light Pink — 

* Meteor. *La France, H. T. 
*Dinsmore, H. P. Countess de Labarthe, T. 

* Pierre Guillot, H. T. *Appoline, B. 
Papa Gontier, T. 

White— Dark Pink — 

The Bride, T. * American Beaiity, H. T. 

Senator McNaughton, T. * Duchess of Albany, H. T. 

* Marie Guillot, T. Mme. C. Testout, H. T. 
*Mme. Bavay, T. Adam, T. 

Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, H. T. * Marie Ducher, T. 

Yelloiv — PeiZoiu— continued. 

Perle des Jardins, T. Sunset, T. 

Mme. Welch, T. Marie Van Houtte, T. 

Hybrid Perpetual, or Remontant Roses. — These do not 
flower as freely as the groups previously mentioned ; but 
the individual flowers are very large and unequaled by 
any other roses. They "flower chiefly in June. Those 
named are among the finest sorts, and some of them flower 
continuously : 

Red— Pink — 

Alfred Colomb. Mrs. John Laing. 

Earl of Dufferin. Paul Neyron. 

Glorie de Margottin. Queen of Queens. 

Anna de Diesbach. Magna Charta. 

Ulrich Brunner. Baroness Rothschild. 

White - 

Margaret Dickson. Merveille de Lyon. 

Hardy Climbing, or Pillar Roses. — These bloom but once 
during the season. They, however, come after the June 



ROSES 301 

roses — a good season — and at that time are literally masses 
of flowers. They require only slight pruning. 

Wliite— Pink — 

Baltimore Belle, Pr. Queen of the Prairies, Pr. 

Washington, N. Tennessee Belle, Pr. 

Rosa Wichuraiana (trailing). Climbing Jules Margotten 

(Fig. 204), H. P. 
Crimson— Yellow — 

Crimson Rambler, Pol. Yellow Rambler, Pol. 

Tender CUmhing, or Pillar Roses. — For conservatories, and 
the South as far north as Tennessee. — Those with an asterisk 
are half-hardy north of the Ohio river, or about as hardy 
as the Hybrid Teas. These need no pruning except a 
slight shortening -in of the shoots and a thinning out of 
the weak growth. 

Yellow— White— 

Marechal Niel, N. *Aimee Vibert, N. 

Solfaterre, N. Bennett's Seedling (Ayrshire). 

*Gloire de Dijon, T. White Banksia Banksiana). 

Yellow Banksia (Banksiana). 

Bed- 

*Reine Marie Henriette, T. James Sprunt, C. 



Section IV 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

There are few home plots so small that fruits 
cannot be grown. If there is no opportunity for 
planting the orchard fruits by themselves at regu- 
lar intervals, there are still boundaries to the place, 
and along these boundaries and scattered in the 
border masses, apples, pears and other fruits may 
be planted. It is not to be expected that fruits 
will thrive as well in these i)laces as in well tilled 
orchards, but something can be done, and the 
results are often very satisfactory. Along a back 
fence or walk, one may plant a row or two of cur- 
rants, gooseberries or blackberries, or he may make 
a trellis of grapes. If there are no trees near the 
front or back of the border, the fruit plants may 
be placed close together in the row and the 
greatest development of the tops may be allowed 
to take place laterally. If one has a back yard 
fifty feet on a side, there will be opportunity, in 
three borders, for six to eight fruit trees, and 
bush fruits between, without encroaching greatly 
upon the lawn. In such cases, the trees are 
planted just inside the boundary line. 

A suggestion for the arrangement of a fruit 

(302) 



SMALL FRUIT -GARDENS 



303 



« 



1 
rd. 



2 rds. 



2 rds. 



10 KODS. 



2 rds. 



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1 
rd. 



O 



10 

ft. 



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(M 


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frt 








X> 


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a) 


U} 


a> 


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u 


^n 


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P. 


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rt. •"! *— ' 



PS W K 



10 
ft. 



204. Plan for a fruit-garden of one acre. From "Principles of 
Fruit-growing." 

garden of one acre is given in Fig. 204. Such a 
plan allows of continuous cultivation in one di- 
rection and facilitates spraying, pruning and har- 
vesting ; and the intermediate spaces may be used 



304 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

for the growing- of annual crops, at least for a 
few years. 

For ver}' small areas, and for the growing of 
the finest dessert fruits, dwarf trees may be grown 
of apples and pears. The apple is dwarfed when 
it is worked upon certain small and slow -growing 
types of apple trees, as the paradise and doucin 
stocks. The doucin is usually the better, since it 
makes a larger and stronger tree than the other. 
The pear is dwarfed when it is grown upon the 
root of quince. Dwarf apples and pears may be 
planted as close as ten feet apart each way, al- 
though more room should be given them if pos- 
sible. The trees should be kept dwarf by vigor- 
ous annual heading -in. If the tree is making 
good growth, say one to three feet, a half to two- 
thirds of the growth may be taken off in winter. 
A dwarf apple or pear tree should be kept within 
a height of twelve or fifteen feet, and it should 
not attain this stature in less than, ten or twelve 
years. A dwarf apple tree, in full bearing, should 
average from two pecks to a bushel of first quality 
apples, and a dwarf pear should do somewhat 
more than this. 

Buj' first-class trees of reliable dealers. It 
rarely pays to try to save a few cents on a tree, 
for quality is likely to be sacrificed. At the 
present time nursery stock is so cheap that one 
need not quibble about prices. 

Some of the cardinal points to be observed in 



SPECIFIC ADVICE ON FRUIT-GROWING 305 

the growing of fruit are detailed in the following 
pages by Professor Taft. Persons who desire to 
pursue the subject further should consult "Prin- 
ciples of Fruit -Growing." 

ADVICE UPON THE GROWING OF FRUIT 

(L. R. Taft) 
1. Northern Orchard Fruits 

There are few sections of the country where fruits of 
some kind cannot be grown with a fair degree of success. 
The grower should take special pains to select a location 
adapted to the kind of fruit he expects to grow, and 
should choose varieties that are known to be valuable in 
that section and for the specific purposes desired. With 
proper care in tliese respects and an intelligent handling 
of the trees, satisfactory returns may be received, while 
if any of the details are neglected, failure may result. 

Age and size of trees.— For ordinary planting, it is 
desirable to select trees two years from bud or graft, ex- 
cept in case of the peach, which should be one year old. 
Many growers find strong one -year trees preferable. A 
good size is about five -eighths of an inch in diameter just 
above the collar, and five feet in height, and if they have 
been well grown, trees of this size will give as good or 
better results than those seven -eighths of an inch, or 
more, in diameter, and six or seven feet high. 

If properly packed, trees can be shipped long distances 
and may do as well as those grown in a home nursery, 
but it will generally be best to secure the trees as near 
home as possible, provided the quality of the trees and 
fhe price are satisfactory. When a large number are to 
be obtained, it will be better to send the order direct to 
some reliable nursery, or to go and select the trees in 
person, than to rely upon tree peddlers. 
T 



306 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



Pruning. — Having planted the trees, they should be 
carefully pruned. As a rule, trees with low heads are 
desirable, and dwarf pears and peaches should have the 
lower branches from twelve to twenty -four inches above 
ground, and sweet cherries and standard pears can gener- 
ally be headed not over thirty inches from the ground ; 
plums, sour cherries and apple can be somewhat higher, 




205. Lean-to fruit cellar, covered with earth. It should be built of 
mason work, with a roof of stone slabs, or of planks covered 
with an inch or two of cement. It should be provided with a 
ventilator at the top. Store the fruit on shelves or in barrels. 



but if properly handled, when trimmed three feet from 
the ground, will not be in the way of the cultivation of 
the orchard. For all except the peach in the northern 
states, a pyramidal form will be desirable. To secure 
this, four or five side branches with three or four buds 
each, should be allowed to grow and the center shoot 
should be cut off at a height of from ten to twelve 
inches. After growth has started, the trees should be 
occasionally examined and all surplus shoots removed, 



STORING OF FRUITS 



307 




206. An outside cellar, fitted to 
keep fruit or vegetables. 



thus throwins^ the full vigor of the plant into those re- 
maining. As a rule three or four shoots upon each 
branch can be left to advantage. The following spring 
the shoots should be cut back about one-half and about 
half of the branches removed. Care should be taken to 
avoid crotches, and if any of the branches cross others, so 
that they are likely to rub, they should be cut out. This 
cutting back and trimming 
out should be kept up for 
two or three years, and in 
the case of dwarf pear trees, 
regular pruning each year 
should be continued. Al- 
though an occasional head- 
ing back will be of advan- 
tage to the trees, apple, 
plum and cherry trees that 
have been properly pruned while young will not require 
so much attention after they come into bearing. 

Gathering and keeping fruit. — Nearly all fruits 
should be gathered as soon as they will readily part 
from the stems on which tliey are borne. With many 
perishable fruits the proper time for gathering will be 
determined largely by the distance they are to be shipped. 
With the exception of winter varieties of apples and 
pears and a few kinds of grapes, it will be best to dispose 
of fruit soon after it is gatliered, unless it is kept for 
family use. If for winter use, the fruit should at once 
be placed in the cellar or fruit house in which it is to be 
stored, and there kept as near the freezing point as 
possible. There will be less danger of the shriveling 
of the fruit if placed at once in closed barrels or other 
tight packages, but if proper ventilation is given the fruit 
may be kept in bins with little loss. Even though no 
ice is used, it will be possible to maintain a fairly low 
temperature by opening the windows at night when the 



308 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



outside atmosphere is colder than that inside the build- 
ing, and closing them during the day as the outer air 
becomes warmer. Fruit should be handled with great 



SAW/DUST 




207. Diagram illustrating tlie constriictiou and principles of operation 
of an ice-cooled store-house. 

care at all times, for if the cells become broken by rough 
handling the keeping qualities will be greatly injured. 
The illustrations (Figs. 205-207) show three types of fruit 
storage houses. 

THE APPLE 



Apples "thrive l)est on a strong, sandy loam soil, or a 
light clay loam. ,While a soil very rich in organic matter 
is not desirable, good results cannot be obtained unless it 
contains a fair amount of vegetable matter. A clover sod 



REMARKS ON APPLES 



309 



is particularly desirable for this as well as for other 
fruits. 

For a commercial orchard, most varieties should be 
from thirty -five to forty feet apart ; but in the garden the 




■||' -""::"i'M!:.iiiiiiiiii'-ii 



.i;iir>iiir."li:ii'"'ii"''""" 

208. Jonathan. 




209. Wagener, 



slow-growing and long-lived sorts may be at forty feet, 
and, half way between in both directions, some of the 
short-lived, early bearing varieties may be placed, to be 
removed after they begin to crowd. The same method 



310 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



may be used for large orchards, but from the fact that 
most people delay the removal of the extra trees until 
after they have become injured from overcrowding, it is 
not generally advisable. 

Vaeieties of apples.''^ — For the northern and eastern 
states, the following varieties will generally be found 
valuable : 

Early.— Yellow Transparent, Early Harvest, Primate, 
Early Joe, Red Astrachan, Golden Sweet, Oldenburg,* 




'210. Pewaiikee. 

Summer Pearmain, Chenango, Bough (Sweet), Graven- 
stein*, Jefferis, Porter. 

Autumn. — Maiden Blush, Bailey (sweet), Fameuse,* Fall 
Pippin, Wealthy* and Mother. 

fTm^e/-.— Jonathan* (Fig. 208), Hubbardston,* Grimes' 
Golden,* Tompkins' King,* Wagener* (Fig. 209), Baldwin,* 
Yellow Bellflower, Talman, Northern Spy,* Red Canada,* 
and Roxbury Russet. 



*The varieties marked with an astei-isk (*) are particularly valuable 
for market purposes as well as for home use; the others are chiefly 
desirable for home use. 



APPLES 311 

For the South and Southwest the varieties named in the 
following list are of value : 

Early. — Red June, Yellow Transparent, Red Astraehan, 
Summer Queen, Benoni, Oldenburg, Gravenstein. 

Autumn. — Haas, Late Strawberry, Maiden Blush, Oconee, 
Rambo, Peck's Pleasant, Rome Beauty," Carter's Blue. 

Winter. — Paragon,* Shockley, Smith's Cider, Hubbard- 
ston, Hoover, Horse, Grimes' Golden, Buckingham, Jona- 
than* (Fig. 208), Winesap, Kinnaird, Ben Davis,* York 
Imperial, Romanite, Rail's Genet, Limber Twig. 

In the Northwest only such varieties as are extremely 
hardy will be satisfactory, and among those likely to suc- 
ceed we may mention: 

Early. — Yellow Transparent, Tetofski. 

Autumn. — Oldenburg,* Fameuse, Longfield, Wealthy, 
McMahan.* 

Winter — Wolf River,* Hibernal, Northwestern Greening, 
Pewaukee (Fig. 210), Switzer, Golden Russet. 

Insects and diseases of the apple. — Among the in- 
sects most commonly found upon the apple-tree are the 
codlin-moth, canker-worm and tent-caterpillar. The 
codlin-moth lays its egg upon the fruit soon after the 
blossoms fall, and the larvre, on hatching, eat their way 
inside. A thorough spraying of the trees with arsenites 
(page 98) within a week after the blossoms fall will do 
much toward destroying them ; but a second application 
in about three weeks, will be desirable. The canker-worm 
(Fig. 92) and tent-caterpillars feed upon the leaves, and 
can also be destroyed by means of arsenites. To be 
effectual against the former, however, the applications 
must be made soon after they hatch, and in a very thor- 
ough manner. 

Borers frequently do much injury to the trunks of trees, 
but if the trees are kept well cultivated and in a thrifty grow- 
ing condition, the injury will be greatly reduced. It will be 
well, however, to wash the trunks of the trees and larger 



312 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



branches with soft soap, thinned with water so that it can 
be applied with a brush or broom, during the spring. The 
addition of an ounce of Paris green in each five gallons of 
the wash will be of value. 

The most troublesome disease of the apple is the apple - 
scab, which disfigures the fruit as well as lessens its size. 




1!11. Blighted and broken foliage and injiired fruit, the work of 
apple-scab. 

It also often does much harm to the foliage, and thus checks 
the growth of the trees (Fig. 211). The Baldwin, Fameuse, 
Northern Spy and Red Canada are particularly subject to 
this disease, and it is much more troublesome in moist 
seasons than when the weather is dry. The use of fungi- 
cides will do much to lessen the injury from this disease. 
To be effectual, however, they must be applied in a thorough 
manner, and as a preventive rather than a cure. The 
trees should be sprayed with a solution of copper sul- 
phate at the rate of one pound to fifteen gallons of water, 
before the buds open in the spring, and as soon as the 
blossoms have fallen, Bordeaux mixture (page 99) should 
be applied. In regions where the disease is troublesome 



APPLE — PEAR 313 

and with varieties subject to its attack, the thorough 
spraying of the trees, after the blossoms have formed and 
just before they open, will often result in the saving of 
the crop. The frequency of the later applications will 
depend upon the prevalence of the disease ; but if there 
is likely to be trouble, the use of Bordeaux mixture upon 
winter varieties every three weeks up to the middle of 
July or first of August will be found profitable. The 
earlier applications can be made in connection with the 
arsenites, and will aid in preventing injury to the foliage 
by free arsenic. 

THE PEAR 

Pears require a rather stiff soil, and do best in a moder- 
ately heavy clay loam. While it should be retentive of 
moisture, it must be well drained. Dwarf pear-trees 
should have a rich, deep, loamy soil, and do best if it is 
of an alluvial nature. Standard pears should be placed 
from twenty to twenty -five feet each wry, and dwarfs 
from twelve to fifteen. Dwarf trees are often more desir- 
able than standard, as they are generally earlier bearers 
and require but one -half as much room as standard trees. 
To be grown successfully, however, they should be se- 
verely cut back each year, and all surplus shoots re- 
moved. As they have a comparatively small root system, 
they should be well supplied with plant-food, and be even 
more thoroughly cultivated than standard trees. While 
there is danger from using an excess of manure, the land 
should be kept well enriched with decomposed stable ma- 
nure, wood ashes and ground bone. 

Varieties of the pear. — As a selection to supply a 
succession of varieties throughout the season, the follow- 
ing list is recommended: 

Early. — Summer Doyenne, Bloodgood, Clapp. 

Autumn. — Bartlett, Boussoek, Flemish Beauty, Buffum, 



314 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



Howell, Seekel (Fig. 212), Louise Bonne, Duchess 
(d'Angouleme) (Fig. 213). 

Winter. — Anjou, Sheldon, Clairgeau, Lawrence, Kieffer 
(Figs. 214, 215), Winter Nelis, and Easter Beurre. 

For ordinary market purposes, the following have been 
proved valuable : Bartlett, Howell, Anjou, Clairgeau, and 




212. Seekel. 



Lawrence. In the central and southern states, Kieffer 
is grown successfully, and in the extreme South LeConte 
is largely grown. For home use, the Kieffer is not to be 
recommended in the North, because of its poor quality and 
smaller size. 

For growing as dwarfs, Duchess (d'Angouleme), Louise 




218. Duchess d'Angouleme. 




214. Kioflfer pear. 



316 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



Bonne, Anjou, Clairgeau and Lawrence are most popular, 
but many other varieties thrive on the quince. 

Insects and diseases of the pear. — In addition to the 
attack of the cherry-tree slug, eodlin-moth, and various 
insects common to other fruits, the foliage of the pear is 
attacked by a leaf -mite (Phytoptus) and the pear tree 
psylla, although neither are commonly troublesome over a 
wide range of country. The latter yields readily to a 
thorough application of kerosene emulsion, applied just 
before the leaves open in the spring. 

The most common and destructive disease of the pear 
is fire -blight. This is of a bacterial nature, and may 
appear upon the trunk, branches, or 
foliage, and if allowed to spread, 
will generally kill the trees. A form 
known as twig-blight attacks the 
branches, but seldom spreads to the 
trunk. It is least troublesome upon 
slow-growing varieties, and where 
there is not an excess of organic 
matter in the soil. If an excessive 
growth can be avoided, the danger 
will be reduced. The blight mani- 
fests itself upon the growing shoots 
by the discoloring of the bark and 
underlying wood, and by the brown- 
ish-black color of the foliage. There 
is no known remedy, but as soon as 
the disease shows itself the affected portions should be 
removed, taking care to cut several inches below where 
any signs of the disease appears. 

The foliage of the pear is also attacked by a fungous 
disease known as leaf-blight, which causes the leaves 
to drop prematurely; the same disease also affects the 
fruit, causing it to crack and become misshapen. The 
use of Bordeaux mixture, as recommended for apple- 




215. Kieffer. 



PEAR— PLUM 317 

scab, will be found to be a sure remedy for this trouble. 
This disease is distinguished from the true pear-blight 
or fire-blight by definite spots or blotches on the leaves and 
the tendency of the leaves to drop prematurely. 

THE PLUM 

While clay is not as necessary for plum as for pear 
trees, they succeed well on moderately heavy clay soils, 
but seem equally adapted to strong, sandy loams. Trees 
grown on myrobalan stocks are best for heavy soils, but 
if it becomes necessary to place them on a light soil, 
those grown on peach roots will give best results. 

The distance at which plums should be placed varies 
from sixteen to twenty feet each way, according to the 
size of the trees and the nature of the soil ; the strong- 
growing sorts upon heavy soils require the greater, while 
weak varieties on lighter soils will succeed at the lesser 
distance. 

Varieties of the plum. — The following varieties 
of European origin will be found desirable for growing 
in the northern and eastern states: Bradshaw, Imperial 
Gage, Lombard, McLaughlin, Pond, Jefferson, Fellenberg, 
Shropshire, Coe Golden Drop, Bavay or Reine Claude, 
Grand Duke, Monarch, and Black Diamond. 

Several of the Japanese varieties are also well adapted 
to growing in these sections, as well as in the states 
farther south. The trees are generally hardy, but they 
bloom early, and are apt to be injured by late frosts in 
some localities. Among the better kinds are the Red 
June, Abundance, Chabot, Burbank, and Satsuma. 

Few of the above sorts are hardy in the Northwest, and 
growers there have to rely upon varieties of Prunus 
Americana origin. Among these are: Forest Garden, 
De Soto, Rollingstone, Weaver, Quaker, and Hawkeye. 
Farther south still other classes of plums have been 



318 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

introduced, among them being Wild Goose, Clinton, 
Moreman, Miner, and Golden Beauty. And still farther 
south, Transparent, Paris Belle, Newman, Lone Star, and 
El Paso are grown. 

Insects and diseases of the plum.— Plum trees are 
attacked by a number of dangerous diseases and insects, 
and to be grown successfully, these require careful atten- 
tion. The most troublesome disease is the " black-knot", 
which causes swellings upon the trunks and branches. 
If allowed to spread it will quickly be fatal to the 
orchard. All diseased branches should at once be re- 
moved, cutting a foot or so below the knot. The spread 
of the disease can, to a large extent, be prevented by 
spraying the trees occasionally during the season with 
Bordeaux mixture, but to be effectual, the spraying and 
cutting out of the knots must be done promptly upon the 
first appearance of the disease. 

Plum trees are also much injured by the " shot -hole 
fungus", which causes the leaves to drop, but it also can 
be prevented by the use of fungicides. 

Brown -rot of the fruit is also very troublesome in 
warm, moist seasons ; although less effective than with 
other diseases, the fungicides will largely prevent its 
spread. 

The fruit is also frequently destroyed by the plum cur- 
culio, an insect which deposits its egg beneath the skin of 
the fruit. The larva, on hatching, eats its way in to the 
pit, causing the fruit to drop from the tree. Thorough 
and persistent spraying with arsenites will sometimes save 
the crop, but many growers prefer to jar the trees early 
in the morning, and catch the curculios upon sheets spread 
for the purpose. 

Plum trees, as well as most of our other fruits, are also 
subject to the attack of the San Jose scale and other scale 
insects. If very numerous, they will greatly injure and 
even destroy the trees. The San Jose scale, in particul-ar, 



SAN JOSE SCALE — PEACH 819 

is very injurious, and if found in large numbers upon a 
tree, it should at once be destroyed ; but if only a few 
are present, they may be killed by thoroughly spraying 
the trees in winter with a solution of whale-oil soap made 
at the rate of one and one -half pounds to a gallon of 
water. Even in summer, thorough spraying with kerosene 
and water will destroy the pest. 



THE PEACH 

Although peaeh trees are hardy, except in the more 
northern states, there are only comparatively a few sec- 
tions in which they can be grown successfully, as the 
flower buds are destroyed if the mercury reaches twenty 
degrees below zero, and frequently at zero or above, if the 
buds have swollen during warm periods in the winter and 
early spring. Peaches are generally grown upon sandy 
loam soils, but do well upon light clays if they are 
naturally well drained. Particular attention should be 
paid to having them in some elevated spot in order that 
they may have perfect air drainage, unless they are in 
sections where the natural surroundings prevent extremes 
of temperature. 

Although most growers find it advisable to plant the 
trees from eighteen to twenty feet each way, some prefer 
to grow them as close as from twelve to fifteen feet, and 
do this by severely heading-back the trees. Trees one 
year from bud should be used, and should be cut back to 
a whip, unless there are side shoots where the head is to 
be formed, in which case thi'ee or four of them should be 
cut back to two buds each, and all others, as well as the 
center shoot, removed. In most sections it will be pref- 
erable to have the lower branches not more than eighteen 
to twenty-four inches from the ground, and in the south- 
ern states, twelve inches will be sufficient. Until the 
trees come into bearing, the shoots should be cut back 




216. Bunch of yellows shoots. 



PEACH 



321 



from one -half to two -thirds each year, and many of the 
weaker ones removed. At the North it is best to grow 
them in an open, vase -shaped form, that the sun may 
enter and ripen the fruit, while at the South the pyra- 
midal form should be chosen. After the trees come into 
bearing they will need less pruning, but a little heading - 
back and thinning out will be desirable each year. In 
ease the crop is lost, it will be well to occasionally cut 
back branches to the main arms, and thus form a new head. 

Varieties OF the peach. — For home 
use it is advisable to provide varieties 
that will ripen in succession, but for 
market purposes, in most sections, 
the medium and late kinds should 
be most extensively planted. Al- 
though there are many varieties that 
have a local reputation, but are not 
commonly found in the nurseries, 
the following kinds are well known, 
and can be generally grown with 
success: Alexander, Hale's Early, 
Early Rivers, St. John, Crawford 
Early and Late, Oldmixon, Stump 
the World, Elberta, Crosby, Gold 
Drop, Smock, and Salway. Among 
the new kinds less commonly known 
are: Triumph, Lewis, Champion, 
Sneed, Greensboro, and Kalamazoo. 

Insects and diseases of the 
PEACH. — In some sections the peach 
industry has been entirely destroyed 
by "yellows." While its exact nature 
is not known, it is evidently conta- 
gious, and infected trees should be 
removed at its first appearance. It 
shows in red spots upon the surface, 

U 




217. Leaf -curl. 



322 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

and streaks running from the pit to the outside of the 
fruit, and in the development of short, weak shoots late 
in the fall from buds that should remain dormant until 
spring. The leaves are small and light yellowish green 
in color. The following year tufts of wiry branches are 
developed in the crotches of the trees and often from the 
large branches (Fig. 216 1, and the tree generally dies dur- 
ing the second or third year. 

Curl-leaf (Fig. 217) is also troublesome in cold, wet 
springs, causing a thickening and folding of the leaves, 
and often resulting in the defoliation of the trees. It is 
a fungous disease, but is seldom troublesome when the 
weather in May and June is warm and dry. If the attack 
is severe, most, if not all of the fruit, will drop from the 
trees. Generally, the tree recuperates, and the disease 
is seldom serious in two succeeding years. Its attack can 
be prevented if the trees are thoroughly sprayed with 
Bordeaux mixture before growth starts, again after the 
blossoms have fallen, and a third time in about ten days. 
The material should be made of full strength, and double 
the amount of lime commonly used would be desirable, 
and to be effectual it should be thoroughly applied to all- 
parts of the trees before the disease has attacked the 
leaves. Peach trees are often injured by spraying. 

The peach is also subject to the attack of brown -rot, eur- 
culio (page 318), and shot-hole fungus. The borer of the 
peach is often very destructive, and the trees should be ex- 
amin.ed in June, and again in October, for its presence. 
Scrubbing the trunks of the trees about the middle of 
June in the northern states, and one or two months earlier 
in the South, with the wash recommended for the apple 
tree borer, may lessen the danger of their attack. 

The black peach aphis is very numerous in some sec- 
tions, and will quickly destroy young trees. They suck 
the sap from the roots of the trees, but appear above 
ground during the summer. They can be destroyed on 



PEACH— APRICOT— CHERRY 323 

the foliage by spraying with strong tobacco water, while 
below ground the best remedy will be to scrape away the 
surface soil and spread about the tree from a half bushel 
to a bushel of unleached wood ashes, or tobacco stems. 

The roots of peach trees are often covered with swell- 
ings known as crown or root -galls. Such trees should 
never be planted, for although they may grow, they will 
never be of value. Similar galls also appear on the 
plum, pear, apple, raspberry, and other fruits. 



APRICOTS AND NECTARINES 

These fruits are not commonly grown, as ordinarily the 
trees are short-lived and lacking in productiveness. They 
require the same care as the peach, are as hardy, are 
attacked by the same insects, and they are as easy to 
grow. A nectarine is only a peach with a smooth skin. 
Apricots thrive on a rather strong soil. Early Golden, 
Moorpark, Royal, Roman, Montgamet and Harris are among 
the best varieties of apricots, and Boston and Pitmaston 
Orange are the leading sorts of nectarines. 



THE CHERRY 

While cherries succeed upon a variety of soils, they do 
best and live longest upon a moderately light soil, pro- 
vided it contains an abundance of plant-food. The pres- 
ence of stagnant water in the soil will be fatal to them. 
For the ordinary planter, the sour kinds will do best and 
prove most productive, as, although ordinarily hardy, sweet 
cherry trees are likely to make a late growth in the au- 
tumn, and the action of frost upon the trunks will result 
in the cracking of the bark, and the life of the tree will 
thus be shortened. Trees grown on Mahaleb stocks will 
generally be found most hardy, particularly on heavy 
soils. The sour varieties may be placed at from eighteen 



324 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

to twenty feet each way, but in sections where the sweet 
cherries reach their full development, twenty-five or thirty 
feet will be none too much for them. 

After the head has once been formed, sour cherries will 
require little pruning; but for a number of years it will 
be well to head back the upright -growing sweet cherries. 
The injury from the winter spoken of above, as injuring 
the sweet kinds, can be greatly reduced if the trunks are 
shortened so that the branches will come out not more 
than one and one-half feet above the ground. 

Varieties of the cherry. — Of the sour varieties, May 
Duke, Early Richmond, Montmorency, Reine Hortense, 
Late Kentish and English Morello are the most valuable. 
The following sweet varieties are of value where they suc- 
ceed: Rockport, Yellow Spanish, Elton, Gov. Wood, Coe 
Transparent, Windsor, Black Tartarian, and Downer. 

Insects and diseases of the cherry. — Cherry trees are 
often nearly defoliated by a small, slimy larva known as 
the cherry-tree slug. It eats off the green portions of 
the leaf, giving them an appearance as if burned with 
fire. They can be readily destroyed by throwing dry road 
dust, wood ashes, or air-slaked lime over the trees, but if 
the trees are large and numerous, it will be easier to 
spray them with Paris green. The so-called cherry worms 
are the larva of the curculio, which also attacks the plum 
and the peach. (See Plum.) 

Although the foliage of young trees is frequently 
attacked with powdery mildew, it seldom does much harm, 
and the only disease to be much feared is brown -rot, 
mentioned as attacking the plum and peach. If the 
weather is warm and moist at the time the trees are in 
blossom, or just as the fruit is ripening, the injury 
inflicted will be quite severe, and the fruit must be 
quickly picked. The disease is most serious on white va- 
rieties of the sweet cherry type. (Consult bulletins of 
Cornell and Delaware Experiment Stations.) 



QUINCE — ORANGE 325 

THE QUINCE 

Although not largely grown, quinces generally find a 
ready sale, and are desirable for home use. The trees 
are usually planted about twelve feet each way, and may 
be trained either in a shrub or tree form, but it will 
generally be best to grow them with a short trunk. They 
succeed best on a deep, moist and rich alluvial soil, and 
require the same care as the pear. The insects and dis- 
eases by which they are attacked are also the same as 
upon that fruit. The Orange is the most common va- 
iety, but Champion, Meech and Rea are sometimes grown. 

2. Sub-Tropical Fruits 

Many sections in California, Florida and Louisiana are 
adapted to the growing of such fruits as oranges, lemons, 
figs and other tender fruits that can only be grown under 
glass in the northern states. In a general way they are 
planted and cultivated in about the same manner as other 
fruits. 

THE ORANGE 

Oranges are grown extensively in many parts of Cali- 
fornia, but in the most favored sections there is occa- 
sionally some injury from frost to the trees or fruit, while 
the recent destructive freeze in Florida caused great 
damage. The soil preferred for oranges in California is a 
rich, deep alluvium, avoiding hard-pan or adobe subsoils. 
Stagnant water in the subsoil is a fatal defect. Although 
they can be grown near the ocean at a lower level, an 
elevation of six hundred to twelve hundred feet is gen- 
erally desirable. While Southern California is particularly 
adapted to orange culture, the fruit is successfully raised 
along the foot-hills of the San Joaquin and Sacramento 



326 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



valleys and in other parts of the state. In Florida, pine 
lands with a clay subsoil are generally preferred for 
oranges, but if properly handled good results can be 
obtained from hammock land. As elevated spots cannot 
be secured, a timber belt surrounding the orchard or 
along the north and west sides is desirable. 




?€^^; 










218. Oonsliiu orange, one of the Tangerine type. 



The distance for the large -growing kinds in the orchard 
is from twenty-five to thirty feet each way, but the half- 
dwarf kinds such as Bahia or Washington Navel may be 
as close as twenty feet each way, although twenty -five 
feet will be desirable. If the roots are sacked, the trees 
should be placed in the hole without removing the cover- 
ing and the soil should then be packed about them, but 
if they are puddled, a mound should be made in the bot- 
tom of the hole. In the center an opening should be 
made into which the tap-root can be inserted. After the 



ORANGES 



327 



soil has been firmly packed about it, the other roots 
should be spread out aud the hole filled with good soil, 
packing it carefully. Care should be taken that the roots 
are not exposed in handling the trees, and if the weather 
is hot and dry the tops should be shaded. Water may 
often be used with good results in settling the soil about 
the roots. 

Pruning the orange. — When transplanted, the tops 
should be cut back in proportion to the amount of roots 




219. Kawachi, a Japauese-American type of orange. 



lost in digging the trees. The head is usually started 
with the branches about two feet from the ground. Each 
year while the trees are small, the strong shoots should 
be cut back to preserve a symmetrical form and the weak 
and surplus shoots should be removed. 

Cultivation of orange orchards.— The cultivation of 
orange orchards should be the same as recommended for 
other fruits, except that as they grow in hot, dry climates, 



328 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

it should be even more thorough, that the evaporation of 
moisture from the soil may be reduced to a minimum. 
California growers have found that by frequent shallow 
cultivation they can reduce the amount of water that 
must be applied by irrigation, and that frequent tillage 
and a little water will give better results than little or 
no cultivation and a large amount of water. The amount 
of water required will also depend on the season and the 
character of the soil. Thus on strong soils and after a 
heavy rainfall, no irrigation will be required, while sandy 
soils will need irrigating as often as once in three or four 
weeks from May to October. As a general rule, two or 
three irrigations in a season will be ample. When used 
at all, water should be applied in sufficient quantities to 
wet down to the roots of the trees. Frequent scanty 
waterings may do much harm. The water is usually ap- 
plied in furrows, and for young trees there should be one 
on either side of each row, but as the roots extend the 
number should be increased, iintil when five or six years 
old the entire orchard should be irrigated from furrows 
four or five feet apart. In Florida, irrigation is not neces- 
sary. Excellent oranges are also grown in the Delta 
country of the Mississippi, below New Orleans, where they 
ripen early. 

Varieties of the orange.— Among the best varieties 
are: Bahia, commonly known as Washington Navel, Mal- 
tese Blood, Mediterranean Sweet, Paper Rind, St. Michael, 
Valencia, and Beach No. 1. Homosassa, Magnum Bonum 
and Nonpariel are favorites in Florida. The Tangerines 
and Madarins, or the "Kidglove" oranges (Fig. 218), have 
a thin rind that is easily detached from the rather dry 
pulp. Orange trees are frequently injured by various 
scale insects, but for several of the most troublesome 
kinds, insect parasites have been found, and for others 
the trees are sprayed, or fumigated with hydrocyanic 
acid gas. 



OLIVE -GROWING 329 



THE OLIVE 

Although olive trees thrive best on a warm, rich aud 
well -drained soil, they may be grown with success on 
dry, rocky hillsides. The greater part of southern and 
central California is adapted to the culture of this fruit. 
While the mean annual temperature should not be lower 
than sixty degrees, the olive can be grown with success 
even though the mercury may fall to fifteen degrees, 
provided the average temperature for the coldest month 
is at least forty degrees. 

The trees can be grown from seeds, if the pulp is first 
removed and the seeds freed from oil by soaking them 
in lye. They may also be readily propagated from either 
long or short half-hard cuttings, or by budding or graft- 
ing. The trees are planted from twenty to twenty -five 
feet apart each way, and on account of their drooping 
habit they should be trained with a moderately high 
trunk, with a center stem. The side shoots should be 
headed -back and the drooping branches removed. 

Olives ripen during the winter, and should be gathered 
as soon as they turn purple. If to be used for oil, the 
fruit is first partially dried and then placed in masonry 
vats, where it is crushed with stone or iron rollers. The 
oil is then pressed out, poured into tanks or vats for 
settling, and then, after being filtered through several 
thicknesses of cotton batting or felt, is put into bottles. 

If for pickling, care should be taken to handle the fruit 
when gathering it so that it will not be bruised. It 
should be poured into tubs of water, which should be 
changed daily for a month or so. The olives are then 
placed in weak brine, and after three or four days are 
changed into brine that will bear an egg, and in this 
can be kept indefinitely. Instead of going to the trouble 
of repeatedly changing the water, the same results can 
be secured, /. e., the removal of the bitter taste, if the 



330 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

olives are soaked in weak lye before they are placed in 
the brine. 

Olive trees respond to good care and cultivation, and 
will remain in fruit for many years. The Mission olive 
is largely grown in California, and Manzanillo, Pendoulier, 
Uvaria, Columella and Maerocarpa are receiving at- 
tention. 

THE PINEAPPLE 

This fruit thrives on rich hammocks and clays, although 
sandy soil with a yellow subsoil is generally preferred. 
It is propagated either from suckers that spring up from 
the base of old plants, from the bud and tuft of leaves 
above the fruit, which is called the crown, or from "slips" 
which grow from the stems below the fruits. They 
root readily by inserting them in beds of damp moss or 
sand, after removing some of the lower leaves. The 
ground for pineapples is prepared by opening furrows 
or shallow trenches a foot or so wide and deep, in which 
a compost of manure, leaves and muck is placed. For 
large fruits, the plants should not be closer than two 
feet in the rows. The weeds must be kept down by 
frequent cultivation or by a heavy mulch. To secure 
against frost, the plants must be covered. For this pur- 
pose shingles or boards can be used while the plants are 
small, but as they become larger stout stakes are set in 
the ground; these are connected by rails, over which 
brush or burlaps are placed. With good care the fruit 
may ripen in two years, although three or four may elapse 
before it comes to maturity, 

Spanish, Sugar Loaf, Egyptian, Ripley Queen, and Porto 
Rico are favorite varieties of pines. 

BANANA 

This fruit can be grown in but few localities, as it is 
greatly injured by frost and, unlike the pineapple, it can- 



BANANA — FIG 331 

not be covered. It thrives on a well -drained, rich, warm, 
sandy loam. The plants, which can be readily obtained 
from suckers sent up by the old stems, should be set 
eight or ten feet apart each way in holes two feet deep 
and three feet wide, which have been filled with a rich 
compost. They should be heavily mulched, and water 
should be freely applied when necessary. 

Hart's Choice and Martinique are excellent varieties. 

FIG 

Few fruits can be grown under as varied conditions of 
soil and climate as the fig, which does well in all parts 
of California, except on the mountains and in the more 
northern counties ; the only requirements are heat enough 
to ripen the fruit and a winter that will not injure the 
trees. It also grows well in Florida and parts of Georgia. 
They are propagated from cuttings or by budding and 
grafting. For a permanent orchard, the trees should 
be forty feet apart, but at first they may be set at half 
that distance and removed later on, or other fruits may 
be grown between the rows for several years. Fig trees 
are headed rather higher than other fruits, especially if 
the fruits are to be used for drying. The branches should 
not be very close upon the trunks, and shoots on the 
under side of the limbs should be removed. After the 
head has been formed little pruning will be required, 
and the trees will come into bearing the third year. 

The greatest drawback to the fig industry in California 
is that growers have not been able to naturalize the insect 
necessary to secure fertilization of the seeds, which is re- 
quired for fruit to be of the highest quality when cured. 

White Adriatic is the most commonly grown white fig. 
Among the other varieties are California Black or Mis- 
sion fig. Brown Ischia, Brown Turkey, Green Ischia and 
Celestial, 



332 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

Even as far north as Maryland, figs can be grown by- 
laying them down in winter. 



3. Tfie Grape 

In order that they may ripen, in most of the states 
grapes require a rather warm soil and a sunny exposure. 
That they may escape both the late spring and early 
autumn frosts, they should be planted in elevated spots, 
as far as possible. The distance should vary according 
to the growth of the variety and the method of training. 
Some of the small -growing sorts may be as close as 
eight feet each way, but ten feet between the rows is 
desirable for most kinds ; although some growers prune 
strong -growing varieties so that they stand sixteen feet 
apart in the row, ten or twelve feet will ordinarily be 
better. Trellises are much more commonly used than 
stakes to support the vines. For these the posts are set 
about twenty-five feet apart, so that they will stand six 
feet out of the ground, and for a vertical trellis, two 
No. 10 galvanized wires are placed upon them; one being 
at the top of the posts, and the other two feet below it. 
A horizontal trellis is preferred by some. This is made 
by placing cross arms two feet long near the top of the 
posts, and upon these stretching three wires about one 
foot apart. Persons who desire specific information on 
training grapes, should consult "Pruning-Book." 

Varieties of grapes. — Under nearly all conditions, the 
Concord will be a valuable black variety, although Wor- 
den, which is a few days earlier, may be preferred by 
many. Moore's Early has been our best very early black 
variety, but is likely to be superseded by Campbell's 
Early, which is a stronger vine, more productive, bunches 
larger, fruit of better quality, and of superior keeping 
qualities, making it valuable for shipping purposes. Ca- 






220. Gall on a 
grape cane. 






W^ii^ 




221. The bag ready to be adjusted. 




222. Second stage in adjusting the bag. 



334 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



tawba, Delaware and Brighton are among the best red 
varieties, although Agawam and Salem are much used. 
Winchell (Green Mountain) is the best early white variety, 
and in most sections Niagara, a late white sort, does well. 
Moore Diamond is a white grape of better quality than 
Niagara. 

The diseases of the grape.— Grape-vines are subject 
to the attack of downy mildew in cold, wet seasons, of 
powdery mildew when it is hot 
and dry, as well as anthracnose 
and black -rot. All of these are 
most troublesome upon vines that 
have ben weakened from over- 
bearing, but there is a great dif- 
erence in the ability of the vines 
of different varieties to resist 
their attacks. Where any of 
these diseases are troublesome, 
the prunings and the fallen leaves 
and fruit should be destroyed, 
and the vines thoroughly sprayed 
with fungicides. The first ap- 
plication should be made in the 
spring before growth starts, and 
the others at intervals or two or 
tliree weeks during the season, 
the number and frequency of the 

applications depending upon the 223. The operation 

prevalence of the disease.* completed 




* A nurseryman sent me the object shown in Fig. 220, saying that he 
took it from a grape-vine near which grew a Kiefifer pear; and judg- 
ing from this perilous proximity of the two plants and the very sus- 
picious shape of the excrescence, he was bound to conclude that he 
had a veritable hybrid between a grape and a pear! Even at the risk 
of seeming to be unappreciative of discoveries in pomology, I was 
obliged to report that the entomologist declared the object to be only 
a gall— and a not uncommon one— produced by an insect.— L H. R. 



GRAPES 335 

For home use and special purposes, grapes may be 
bagged, to protect them from black-rot, frost, birds and 
insects. The operation consists in enclosing the cluster 
(when the grapes are half grown) in grocers' manilla 
bags, allowing these bags to remain until the grapes are 
fully ripe. Because of the greater and more uniform 
warmth in the bags, the fruits in them are usually earlier, 
larger and better. Figs. 221, 222, 223 show how the 
bags are prepared and applied, the flaps being secured 
with a pin. 

EUROPEAN GRAPES 

The cultivation of the European wine grape has :^eaehed 
immense proportions in California, where there are single 
vineyards of two to three thousand acres. 

Table and wine grapes are grown successfully in nearly 
all parts of the state, but the raisin industry is confined 
to the hot, dry valleys where the fruit can be cured. 
The vine thrives upon a variety of soils, but for the 
best results an abundance of plant-food should be 
provided. The plants are propagated by layering, bud- 
ding, grafting, and most commonly from cuttings, which 
are inserted in the ground where the vine is to grow. 
Most of the grapes are grown without trellises, and in 
the case of the raisin grapes, the trunk is seldom more 
than fifteen inches high, while wine grapes are but little 
more than two feet. As generally pruned, the vine is 
cut back the first year after planting, leaving but one 
spur with two buds. Shoots are allowed to grow from 
these, and in the following winter the strongest one that 
is upright should be cut off at the height the head is 
desired, and all others removed. Upon the shoot that is 
left all but two strong buds at the top should be rubbed 
off. From these, arms are allowed to grow which are 
cut back at the end of the year to three or four buds 
each. From these buds the spurs are formed. The 



336 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

number should vary with the strength of the plants from 
five to eight, and the number of buds from three to five 
upon each. Every year all shoots are removed except one 
upon each spur, which is cut back to form a new spur. 
It is well to rub off all suckers that start and to pinch 
back the ends of the shoots when about two feet long. 

Powdery and downy mildew attack this species, but yield 
to fungicides. 

The leading table grapes are: Thompson Seedless, 
Mission, White Muscat of Alexandria, Black Hamburg, 
Flame Tokaj^, and Rose of Peru. The leading sorts for 
drying are: White Muscat, Muscatel, Thompson Seed- 
less, White Malaga, and Sultana. From the fact that it 
seldom rains from April to October in the raisin district 
in California, the raisins can be cured in the open air. 
Large trays of the fruit are placed between the rows in 
the vineyards. These European types of grapes are the 
ones which are grown in glass graperies, a discussion of 
which is not germane to this book. 



4. Small -fruits 

RED AND BLACK RASPBERRIES 

The distance at which raspberries should be planted 
varies with the variety. As a rule, the early sorts may 
be placed as close as six feet, by four feet in the row, 
or even less if they are to be allowed to form matted 
rows, but the larger -growing late sorts, such as Grregg 
and Eureka among the black and Cuthbert and Colum- 
bian of the reds, should be seven or eight feet apart on 
rich soil, and four or five feet in the row. After the first 
year or two the red varieties may be allowed to throw 
up suckers, so as to form continuous rows. The shoots 



RASPBERRIES 



337 



of raspberries sent up one season fruit and die the fol- 
lowing year. 

Pruning raspberries. — Most of the black-eap varie- 
ties naturally throw out branches the first season, and 
with all such it is a good plan to pinch back the new 
canes as soon as they have reached a height of from two 
to three feet, according to the full height of the variety. 
This will hasten the throwing out of side shoots, upon 
which fruit will be borne the following year. As soon 
as severe freezing weather is over in the spring, these 

/it 




224. Rooting "tip " of black raspberry. 



side shoots should be cut back to from nine to twelve 
inches, according to the strength of the canes and the 
number of side branches upon them. 

The same method of pruning is advisable with red 
varieties like Cuthbert, which naturally branch freely. 
Other sorts, like King, Hansell, Marlboro, Turner, and 
Thwack, that seldom branch, should not be pinched back 
in summer, as, even though this might induce them to 
send out shoots, the branches will be weak, and if they 
survive the winter, will produce less fruit than would the 
strong buds upon the main canes had they not been 
forced into growth. 

Pruned in this way, nearly all varieties will have stems 
sufficiently large to support themselves, but as there will 

V 



338 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



be more or less breaking down, and injury to the fruit 
from the bending over of the canes, many growers prefer 
to support them by means of stakes or trellises. Stakes 
may be set in each hill, or for matted rows stout stakes 
three feet high are driven at intervals of forty feet and 
a No. 10 galvanized wire is stretched along the row, to 
which the canes are tied. It would be a saving of labor 
if a wire is stretched either side of the row, as then no 
tying will be required. As soon as the crop has been 
gathered, and the old canes are dead, they should be re- 




225. Suckers of red raspberi'ies. 



moved, and at the same time all of the surplus new 
shoots should be cut away. From four to five good canes 
will be sufficient for each hill, while in rows the number 
may be from two to three in each foot. 

If it is desired to obtain new plants, the ends of the 
branches of the black varieties should be covered with 
soil about the middle of August, when the tips are seen 
to divide into several slender shoots, and to take root 
(Fig. 224) ; these can be taken up and planted the follow- 
ing spring. While the suckers that spring up from the 
roots of red varieties (Fig. 225), may be used in propa- 
gating them, it will be better to use plants grown from 
root cuttings, as they will have much better roots. 



RASPBERRIES— BLACKBERRIES 339 

Varieties of raspberries. — Of the black sorts the 
following will be found desirable: Palmer, Conrath, Kan- 
sas, and Eureka, which ripen in the order named. In 
some sections the Gregg is still valuable, but it is some- 
what lacking in hardiness. Ohio is a favorite variety for 
evaporating. Of the purple-cap varieties, Shaffer and 
Columbian generally succeed. Among the red varieties 
none are more universally successful than Cuthbert. King 
is a promising early variety, and Loudon is a valuable 
late kind. Many growers find Marlboro and Turner well 
worthy of cultivation, although rather local in their adap- 
tations; while for home use, Golden Queen, a yellow 
Cuthbert, is much liked. 

Diseases. — The most troublesome disease of the rasp- 
berry is anthracnose, which attacks the stems, causing 
large scars, and leads to the drying out of the canes. It 
is most troublesome in old, neglected plantations, and if 
very serious it will be best to abandon the plantation and 
start a new one with healthy plants. Many growers find 
it necessary to renew their plantation as often as once 
in five or six years, in order to secure the best results. 
The use of Bordeaux mixture in the spring, before growth 
starts, again when the young shoots have reached a 
height of one foot, and a third application at the end 
of two or three weeks, will generally secure a healthy 
growth, provided the old canes have not been severely 
injured. 

blackberries and dewberries 

In a general way the planting and care of a black- 
berry plantation is the same as required by raspberries. 
From the fact that they ripen later in the season, when 
droughts are most common, even greater attention should 
be given to locating them upon a soil that is retentive 
of moisture, and to providing an efficient mulch, which 
can generally best be secured with a cultivator. The 



340 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



stronger -growing varieties should have at least eight feet 
between the rows, but some of the smaller rows may be 
planted at six feet. While hill culture is desirable for 
the garden, commercial, growers generally use continuous 
rows. 

Varieties of blackberries. — Many of the better varie- 
ties of blackberries are lacking in hardiness, and cannot 
be grown except in the more favorable localities. Snyder 
and Taylor are most generally successful, although Wilson 
and Early Harvest are often grown on 
a large scale for market, and do well 
with winter protection. Eldorado is a 
new sort much like Snyder, that seems 
hardy and productive, Erie, Minnewaski 
and Early King are in many sections 
large and valuable sorts. 

Dewberries are trailing blackberries. 
They are usually earlier, and can be 
more easily protected in winter. They 
should be trained to a trellis or tied 
to stakes. Lucretia (Fig. 226) is the 
leading variety. 

Diseases. — The most troublesome dis- 
ease of the blackbei'ry is orange rust, 
which often proves very destructive, 
particularly to Kittatinny and a few 
other sorts. While spraying may aid 
in preventing its spread, there is no 
remedy, and on the first appearance 
of the disease the infected canes should be removed and 
burned. 




226. Lucretia dew 

berry. Natural 

size. 



CURRANTS 



Currants delight in a cool, moist soil, and cannot be 
grown successfully in the southern states. While many 
growers place them five feet each way, some prefer to 



CURRANT 341 

have them six or seven feet between the rows. For the 
first year or two after planting, the currants require but 
little care in pruning, except to cut back the new shoots 
about one-half, and if very thick, to remove the weaker 
ones. As the fruit is borne upon the old canes, there 
should be in each hill at least five or six fruiting stalks, 
which should be allowed to remain until four or five 
years old, when they should be removed and new canes 
provided to take their place. As the vines get older, 
the annual pruning will consist in the removal of one 
or two of the old canes and the thinning out of all sur- 
plus shoots. One or two new shoots should be allowed 
to remain, to take the place of the old ones that are re- 
moved. 

Insects and diseases of the currant. — Currants are 
frequently much injured by borers, which work in the 
pith of the canes and destroy them. Varieties with a 
large pith and soft wood are most troubled by them. All 
dead and dying canes should at once be removed and 
burned, as should all canes that in pruning are found 
to have the borers in them. The currant worms also 
do much harm, and frequently defoliate the plants. The 
eggs hatch when the leaves are about one -half grown, 
and if the plants are at that time thoroughly sprayed 
with Paris green at the rate of one pound to one hun- 
dred and fifty gallons of water, the first brood will be 
destroyed and there will generally be little trouble from 
the second. If they appear after the fruit is half grown, 
they can be destroyed with pyrethrum, used at the rate 
of a tablespoonful to a gallon of water. Currants are 
also likely to be injured by various forms of leaf-blight, 
but the foliage can be preserved by the use of Bordeaux 
mixtur"^ in the spring and again after the crop has been 
gathered. The first application may be made at the same 
time as that of the Paris green for the currant worms. 

Varieties of currants.— In most sections the Red 



342 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

Dutch will be found to be the most satisfactory variety, 
as the plants are much less injured by borers than are 
Cherry, Fay and Versailles, which are larger and better 
varieties, and are to be preferred in sections where the 
borers are not troublesome. Victoria is a valuable market 
sort where borers are numerous, as they are little injured 
by them. The same is also true of Prince Albert, which 
is little attacked by currant worms and is particularly 
valuable as a late sort. White Dutch and White Grape 
are valuable light- colored varieties, and Black Naples as a 
variety for jelly. 

GOOSEBERRIES 

While this fruit, like the currant, delights in a cool, 
moist soil, it should only be planted where it can have a 
free circulation of air, unless it is in partial shade. The 
distance should be the same as given for the currant, and 
it will well repay the best of cultivation. From the 
tendency of most varieties to throw up suckers, careful 
attention should be paid, particularly while the plants are 
young, to the removal of surplus shoots, in order to secure 
an open head. Aside from the heading-back of the young 
shoots and the removal of the older canes, little pruning 
will be required. If soil of a suitable nature cannot be 
secured, few plants will be more benefited by a mulch. 

Insects and diseases. — Gooseberrries are, even more 
than the currant, attacked by the currant worms, and 
the same remedies should be used upon them. In addi- 
tion to the leaf-blight, gooseberries, particularly the va- 
rieties of English origin, are often much injured by 
powdery mildew, which attacks stems, leaves and fruits. 
It is most troublesome in dry seasons and on dry soils, 
especially as the gooseberry thrives best in a cool, moist 
climate. Much can be done to prevent its attack by a 
proper selection of soil; by planting either in a partial 
shade, or upon a hill -side, where tj?.e air can have a free 



GOOSEBERRIES — STRAWBERRIES 343 

circulation, as well as by the removal of the lower branches 
and training the plants in an open, vase-shaped form. 
The disease yields readily to the application of fungicides, 
and all plants of European origin should be sprayed in 
the spring, before growth starts, with Bordeaux mixture, 
and the application should be repeated at intervals of 
from ten days to two weeks, from the time the leaves 
are half- grown until there is danger of spotting the fruit. 
From that time until the fruit is gathered, a solution 
of sulphide of potassium, at the rate of one ounce to 
three gallons, should be used at frequent intervals. After 
the fruit has been picked, Bordeaux mixture should be 
applied, and the application repeated on the first ap- 
pearance of the disease. 

Varieties of gooseberries. — For ordinary use the Down- 
ing can generally be recommended. It is hardy, produc- 
tive, of fair size and greenish white in color. Houghton 
is even more hardy and j)roductive, but the fruit is rather 
small and of a dark red color. Among the varieties of 
European origin which can be successfully grown, if the 
mildew can be prevented, are Industry, Triumph, Keep- 
sake, Lancashire Lad, and Golden Prolific, Among other 
varieties that are promising, are Champion, Columbus 
Chautauqua, and Red Jacket. 

STRAWBERRIES 

While strawberries thrive upon a variety of soils, they 
generally succeed best upon a strong, sandy loam, or a 
light clay loam. For most purposes it will be found best 
to grow them in narrow, matted rows. The plants should 
be set as early in the spring as the ground can be worked, 
in rows three and one -half feet apart, and from one to 
two feet in the row, according to the tendency of the 
variety to form runners. The planting can be done with 
a trowel, spade, or dibble, taking care to spread the roots 



344 



THE FRUIT PLANTATION 



out as much as possible and to press the soil firmly about 
them, holding the plant so that the bud will be just above 
the surface. If the season is late and the weather is hot 
and dry, some or all of the older leaves should be re- 
moved. If water is used, it should be poured about the 
roots before the hole is filled and as soon as it has soaked 
away the remaining soil should be packed about the 
plants. During the first season the ]>lossom stalks should 




227. Potted strawberry plant. 



be removed as soon as they appear, and the runners should 
be restricted to a space about one foot wide. Some per- 
sons prefer to still farther reduce the number of plants, 
and after layering from three to four plants between those 
originally set, all others are removed. 

Strawberries are often set in August or September, but 



STRAWBEKRY 345 

this is advisable only for small patches or when the soil 
is in the best possible condition and the highest culture is 
given. For garden culture, it may pay to secure potted 
plants (Fig. 227). These are sold by many nurserymen, 
and they may be obtained by plunging pots beneath the 
runners as soon as the fruiting season is passed. In 
August, the plant should fill the pot (which should be 
three -inch or four -inch) and the plant is ready for setting 
in the plantation. Such plants should bear a good crop 
the following spring. 

With the highest culture, good results can be obtained 
from the hill system of growing strawberries. For this 
the plants may be set in rows three feet apart and one 
foot in the row, or if it be worked both ways, they may 
be from two to two and one -half feet each way. In the 
small garden, where a horse cannot be used, the plants are 
frequently set one foot each way, arranging them in beds 
of from three to five rows, with walks two feet wide 
between them. As fast as runners form, they should be 
removed, so that the entire vigor of the plant will be 
exerted in strengthening the crown. When extra fine 
specimen berries are desired, the plant may be held above 
the ground by a wire frame, as shown in Fig. 228. 

During the first season strawberries should be frequently 
worked, rather deep at first, but as the weather becomes 
warm and the roots fill the ground, it should be restricted 
to a depth of not more than two inches. The weeds 
should never be allowed to get a start, and if the season 
is dry, cultivation should be so fre- -».x^#^«^>^?^yrTf^ 
quent that the surface soil should at ^^^^^^^^^^^ 
all times be loose and open, forming ^^i^^!^^^^^^^_ 
a dust mulch to conserve the mois- p^^^^^^^^^^^P 
ture. If the fall is moist and the ^5^3M^^^3^^H^ 
plantation free from weeds, there * ^^^^^^51^/ 
will be little occasion for cultivation '^ --==53=- 

i-j. 4-u-cj-^c-j- X. x-1-^ 228. Strawberry grown 

alter the first ot .September, until just on a rack. 



84:6 THE FRUIT PLANTATION 

before the ground freezes up, when a thorough cultivation 
should be given. In addition to the horse cultivation, the 
hoe should be used whenever necessary to loosen the soil 
about the plants and to destroy weeds that may start in 
the row. 

After the ground has frozen, it will be advisable to 
mulch the plants by covering the space between the rows 
with some waste material to the depth of about two 
inches. Directly over the plants a covering of one inch 
will generally suffice. The material used should be free 
from the seeds of grass and weeds, and should be such 
as will remain upon the beds without blowing off and 
that will not pack down too closely upon the plants. 
Marsh hay makes an ideal mulch, but where it can not be 
secured, straw will answer. Corn fodder makes a clean 
but rather coarse mulch, and where they can be held in 
place by some other material, forest leaves do well as a 
mulch between the rows. In the spring the straw should 
be removed from over the plants and allowed to remain 
between the rows as a mulch, or all of it may be removed 
and the soil worked with a cultivator. 

A large crop should be produced the second season, and 
many believe it best to renew the plantation each year, 
but if the plants are healthy and the ground free from 
grass and weeds, the plantation can often be retained for 
a second crop. It will be well to plow the soil away from 
the rows so as to leave but a narrow strip, and along this 
the old plants should be cut out so as to leave the new 
plants about one foot apart. If this is done in July, the 
rows should fill up by winter, so as to be in about the 
same condition as a new bed. 

Varieties of strawberries.— For most parts of the 
country, Haverland, Warfield, Bubach and Gandy afford 
a succession and are all hardy and productive varieties. 
The first three are imperfect -flowered varieties and some 
such perfect -flowering kinds, as Lovett or Beder Wood, 



STRAWBERRY 347 

should be provided to fertilize them. Among other va- 
rieties that do well in most sections, are Brandywine, 
Greenville, Clyde, and Woolverton. Parker Earle is very 
late, and is valuable for either home use or market, upon 
strong, moist soils, where it can have the best of care. 
William Belt and Marshall have large, showy fruits, and 
do well on strong soil. 

Tnsects and diseases of the strawberry. — The insect 
most commonly troublesome to the strawberry grower is 
the common June-bug, or May-beetle, the larvae of which 
are often very common in land that has been in sod. 
Two years should elapse before sod land is used for this 
crop. 

Cut-worms are often troublesome, but plowing the land 
the fall previous to setting the plants will result in de- 
stroying many of them. They can be poisoned by sprink- 
ling about the field clover or other green plants that 
have been soaked in Paris green water. 

There are also a number of leaf-rollers and other larv?e 
that feed upon the foliage of the strawberry, but they 
will do little harm, if on their first appearance the plants 
are thoroughly sprayed with Paris green water. 

The most common fungous disease of the strawberry is 
leaf -blight or "rust," which frequently causes much injury 
to the foliage, and may result in the loss of the crop. 
Varieties least subject to the disease should be chosen 
for planting, and upon suitable soils and well cared for, 
there need be little loss from this disease if the planta- 
tion is frequently renewed. 



Section V 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

It is essential to any satisfaction in vegetable 
growing that the soil be rich and thoroughlj^ 
subdnecl and fined. The plantation should also 
be so arranged that the tilling can be done with 
wheel tools, and, where the space will allow it, 




{fi^ 









229. Cultivating the back-ache. 




with horse tools. The old-time garden bed (Fig. 
229) consumes time and labor, wastes moisture, 
and is more trouble and expense than it is 
worth. 

The rows of vegetables should be long and 
continuous, to allow of tillage with wheel tools. 
If it is not desired to grow a full row of any 

(348) 



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230. Tracy's plan for a kitchen-garden. 

Rule-Book." 



From "Horticnltnrist's 



-350 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



one vegetable, the row may be made up of sev- 
eral species, one following the other. One or 



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231. Suggestion for a gardeu fence. 



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two long rows containing a dozen kinds of vege- 
tables are usually preferable to a dozen short 
rows, each with one kind of vegetable. Fig. 230 
shows a good plan for a kitchen garden. Fig. 



RowsI>^rAPA^T it^^'r Rows Zrr.AP Af^T RowsSTtAp^^^ 

H lit 





352 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

231 is a plan of a fenced garden, in which gates 
are provided at the ends to allow the turning of 
a horse and cultivator (Webb Donnell, in Ameri- 
can Gardening) . Fig. 232 shows a garden with 
continuous rows but with two breaks running 
across the area dividing the plantation into blocks. 
The area is surrounded with a windbreak, and 
the frames and permanent plants are at one 
side. 

It is by no means necessary that the vegetable 
garden should contain only kitchen -garden vege- 
tables. Flowers maj^ be dropped in here and 
there, wherever a vacant corner occurs or a plant 
dies. Such informal and mixed gardens usually 
have a personal character which adds greatly to 
their interest, and, therefore, to their value. One 
is generally impressed with this informal char- 
acter of the home -gardens in many European 
countries, a type of planting which arises from 
the necessity of making the most of every inch 
of land. It was the writer's pleasure to look 
over the fence of a Bavarian peasant's garden 
and to see, on a space about forty feet by one 
hundred feet in area, a delightful mixture of 
onions, pole beans, peonies, celer}^, balsams, 
gooseberries, coleus, cabbages, sunflowers, beets, 
poppies, cucumbers, morning-glories, kohl-rabi, 
verbenas, bush beans, pinks, stocks, currants, 
wormwood, parsley, carrots, kale, perennial phlox, 
nasturtiums, feverfew, lettuce, lilies! 



VEGETABLES 353 

ROW TO GROW VEGETABLES'^ 

CF. A. Waugh) 

1. Root Crops and Tubers — Beet, Carrot, Parsnip, Potato, etc. 

To grow root crops, loose and deep soil, free from clods, 
is required. The land must also be perfectly drained, not 
only to remove superfluous moisture, but to provide a deep 
and friable soil. Subsoiling is useful in hard lands. A 
large admixture of sand is generally desirable, provided 
the soil is not apt to overheat in sunny weather. 

To keep roots fresh in the cellar, pack them in barrels, 
boxes or bins of sand which is just naturally moist, allow- 
ing each root to come wholly or partly in contact with the 
sand. The best material in which to pack them is sphag- 
num moss, the same which nurserymen use in packing 
trees for shipment, and which may be obtained in bogs 
in many parts of the country. In either sand or sphag- 
num, the roots will not shrivel; but if the cellar is warm, 
they may start to grow. Roots can also be buried after the 
manner of potatoes. 

Beets are best grown in drills three and a-half feet apart. 
The seeds, if fresh, are sown rather sparsely very early in 
the season, and covered with an inch of mellow soil. The 
young plants will endure light frost. When the plants be- 
gin to grow they should be thinned to six or eight inches in 
the row. The young plants which are removed may be 
used for greens. For winter beets, sow in July or August 
in the same manner, and after the first heavy frost take up 
the roots, cut off the tops, sort, and store in a root cellar 
or pit. For first crop, select short or globular varieties, 
such as Extra Early Egyptian, Early Eclipse or Bastian's 



^Mushrooms, being grown indoors, do not come under the purview of 
this book. Consult Falconer's book on " Mushrooms." 

For succinct advice on the treatment of insects and fungi, consult 
the last edition of Horticulturist's Rule-Book. 

W 



354 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



(Fig. 233) Blood Turnip. For winter crop, choose Long 
Dark Blood. Some of the early varieties, when sown late, 
are also good keepers. (For Swiss Chard, see page 379.) 

Beets are generally free from insect and fungous troubles, 
although a leaf-blight is common in some places. For 




\ 

233. Bastian Turnip beet. 




234. A half-long carrot. 



this two or three sprayings with Bordeaux mixture, before 
the disease makes headway, are effective. 

Turnips should be grown in drills, like beets, for the 
early crop. The young plants will stand light frosts. 
Choose a rainy day for planting, if practicable. Cover 
the seed very lightly. Thin the young plants to five to 
seven inches in the row. Sow every two weeks if a con- 



ROOT CROPS 355 

stant supply is desired, as turnips rapidly become hard and 

woody in warm summer weather. For the fall and winter 

crop in the North, 

" Ou the fourteenth day of July, 
Sow your turnips, wet or dry." 

In many parts of the Northern and Middle states tradition 
fixes the 25th of July as the proper time for sowing flat 
turnips for winter use. In the Middle states, turnips 
are sometimes sown as late as the end of August. 

Or, take advantage of any convenient leisure at about 
that season to prepare a piece of very mellow ground, and 
sow the seed thinly and evenly broadcast. In spite of the 
old rhyme, a gentle shower will then be acceptable. These 
turnips are pulled after frost, the tops removed, and the 
roots stored in cellars or pits. For the early crop, Purple - 
top Strap-leaf, Early White Flat Dutch and Early Purple- 
top Milan are the favorite varieties. Yellow- fleshed sorts 
like Golden Ball are very fine for early table use, when 
well grown, but most eaters prefer white turnips in spring, 
although they occasionally patronize the yellow varieties in 
the fall. Yellow Globe is the favorite yellow fall turnip, 
though some persons grow yellow ruta-bagas and call them 
turnips. For late crop of white turnips, the same varieties 
chosen for spring sowing are also desirable. 

Ruta-bagas are distinguished from turnips by their 
smooth, bluish foliage, long root and yellow flesh. They 
are richer than turnips; but they require the same treat- 
ment, except that the season of growth is longer. Fall- 
sown or summer- sown bagas should have a month the start 
of flat turnips. 

Except the maggot (see Radish), there are no serious 
insects or diseases peculiar to turnips and bagas. 

Carrots should be kept on hand in a state of tender im- 
maturity throughout the season, to be used in soups, salads, 
boiled dinners, and other savory cookery. With this in 
view, several small successional sowings should be made of 



356 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



small -growing, fine-grained varieties, as Early Scarlet 
Horn or Earliest Short-horn. Early Half-long Scarlet 
(Fig. 234) is desirable for later crops and for storing in 





2H5. Student parsnip. 



/ 

236. Salsify. 



the root-cellar for winter use. Carrots for the kitchen - 
garden may be sown very early in drills one foot apart in 
beds, or three by three and a half feet apart for horse cul- 
tivation. Cover the seed very lightly, pressing down the 
soil firmly. Thin young plants to four inches in a row. 



ROOT CROPS 357 

Carrot seed is small, and germinates slowly. Be careful 
that the earth does not bake over the row before the plants 
come up. Radish seed sown in the same drill (page 37) 
will break the crust and mark the row. For late crop, seed 
may be sown as late as midsummer, unless the very large 
varieties are used. 

There are no serious enemies or diseases. 

Parsnip. Treat exactly like carrot, so far as sowing 
and thinning are concerned. For early use and summer 
successions, plant Early Round, and for later crops Long 
Smooth, or some good strain of Hollow Crown. Parsnips 
may be left in the ground all winter without protection, 
and the roots are then dug in warm spells, or in spring, as 
wanted. The main-crop varieties, as Long Smooth, Hollow 
Crown and Student (Fig. 235) require the entire season in 
which to grow. 

No serious enemies or diseases. 

Salsify (Fig. 236). This delicious and much-neglected 
vegetable requires the entire summer for its development. 
Sow in early spring, being careful not to plant too thick. 
Thinning is a little difficult, but the plants must not be 
crowded. Leave four to five inches between plants. When 
the ground does not freeze excessively, salsify roots may be 
left out throughout the winter, and dug whenever a potato 
fork or a crowbar will get them out. Usually, however, 
the roots should be dug before the soil freezes, and stored in 
slightly moist soil, or in moss, in a frame or cellar. Mam- 
moth Sandwich Island is practically the only variety offered 
for sale. 

No enemies. 

Radish. The first crop in spring should be grown in hot- 
beds or frames (See pages 67 to 88) ; but a tolerably early 
crop may be secured in the open ground. A mellow 
" quick" soil is essential. Radishes do not thrive in clay. 
Radishes must grow very rapidly to be tender, and they 
should be eaten while still small. Sow in drills a foot or 



358 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



-%*- '^- 



fourteen inches apart, and thin to three inches in the row 

as soon as the young plants are well up. There are many 

desirable early varieties, as French Breakfast, Olive -shaped 

Scarlet, Early Scarlet Turnip and Red Turnip, 

the red or pink varieties usually having the 

preference for table use. Long Scarlet Short- 

top IS a standard late variety. \} 

In summer, the small spring radishes do not 
thrive, but larger and white varieties are then 
used, as White Strasburg and Stuttgart. There 
are winter radishes, — as California Mammoth 
White, Long Black Spanish, Scarlet Chinese, — 
which may be stored as 
beets and turnips are. 

The radish is very 
liable to the attacks of 
grubs, which are the 
lavge of a small fly. 
These insects burrow in 
the root, and make it 
"wormy." The only ef- 
fective escape is to plant 
in soil which has not 
been infested within two 
or three years. Constant 
rotation will keep the _^ -Xm^l V' 
pests in check ; but they 
also work on turnips. 
When the insects are 
troublesome, the crops 
should be grown on op- 
posite sides of the garden in successive years, and when 
they are very bad it may be necessary to give up growing 
radishes and turnips for a time. The bisulphide of car- 
bon treatment recommended for cabbage is effective, but 
would hardly pay with radishes. 



xS^ 




237. French Breakfast 

and Olive- shaped 

radishes. 



238. Good 

horse-radish 

root. 



ROOTS AND TUBERS 359 

Horse-radish is a perennial, but for market it is chiefly 
grown as an annual crop. It is propagated by "sets," 
which are small roots (the size of one's finger or a lead 
pencil), which are trimmed from the large roots when 
the crop is stored in the fall. These sets should be four 
to six inches long, the top end cut off square, so as to 
mark the right end up, for if the sets are planted wrong end 
up, crooked roots will result. To raise good horse-radish, 
the land should be deep and loose. The sets are planted 
two or three inches deep in a vertical position, and fifteen 
to eighteen inches apart. It is customary to plant them 
in alternate rows or ridges in plantations of early beets or 
spinach, or other spring crops, allowing the roots to be 
three or three and one-half feet apart. Plant early, and 
by early summer let the horse-radish have all the land. 
The roots (Fig. 238) are dug in late fall, and care is 
taken to get all the pieces of roots out of the land, for the 
plant is apt to become a bad weed. If the land is plowed 
up deep and loose in the fall, most of the remaining 
roots can be picked out in spring. If old roots or crowns 
are planted, crooked and branchy roots are obtained. 

Potato, The culture of the potato is so simple and 
well known as to need no description. Level culture 
is usually best. Early Ohio, Polaris, and Rural New- 
Yorker are favorite varieties among hundreds of good 
ones. (Consult Farmers' Bulletin 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. ; 
also Bulletin 140, Cornell Exp. Sta.) 

Sweet potato plants are usually started in hotbeds, 
by planting the tubers. The plants are then slipped 
off the tubers with the thumb, and set two feet apart 
in rows five or six feet apart. Frequently the rows are 
ridged, but this will depend on soil, climate and drainage. 
Varieties differ greatly; but selection among them is 
mostly a matter of taste. Some persons prefer the dry, 
mellow, yellow or white potatoes, others choose the 
sugary yams. Yellow Nansemond, White Nansemond, 



360 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Southern Queen and Vineless are generally in good 
repute. (Consult Farmers' Bulletin 26, U. S. Dept. Agr. ; 
also Price's "Sweet Potato Culture for Profit.") 

2. Alliaceous Group — Onions, etc. 

Onion. Onions may be grown from seeds or from sets. 
If seeds are used they may be sown in the open ground 
where the bulbs are to mature, or they may be sown in 
greenhouses or hotbeds and the young plantlets trans- 
planted to the rows in the 
open ground. In sowing 
out of doors, seeds should 
be put in as early as pos- 
sible, in shallow drills 
three to three and one- 
half feet apart, and cov- 
ered with a half inch of 
fine, moist earth. They 
need to be very carefully 
weeded at first, but if the 
ground is clean and mel- 
low and the rows straight 
the wheel -hoe will be able 
to take full charge of the 
work early in the season. 
It has been repeatedly 
shown that cheaper, bet- 
ter and earlier onions can 
be grown by transplanting 
the plants from green- 
houses or hotbeds, where 
the seeds are sown very 
early. When the plant- 
lets are as large as a 

lead pencil, they are set 239. Bunch onions grown from seed 
four inches apart in rows of the Italian type. 




ONIONS — BEANS . 361 

three feet asunder, and cultivation is immediately begun 
with the wheel -hoe. In growing from sets the planting 
is made in much the same way. Multiplier or potato 
onions are similarly managed. 

Varieties. — Prizetaker is probably the most popular va- 
riety of the present day. Yellow Globe Danvers is also a 
favorite. The Wethersfield Red is the type of red- 
bulbed sorts, and the Silver- Skin the most popular white 
variety. Varieties variously known as "Spanish," "Italian," 
"Bermuda," or "European" onions are often grown, 
particularly in the South and in California. Large White 
Italian Tripoli, Red Italian Tripoli and Giant Rocca are 
representatives of this class. (Consult T. Greiner, "New 
Onion Culture," and "Onions for Profit;" Watts, "Onion 
Culture," Farmers' Bull. 39, U. S. Dept. Agr. ; W. .1 . 
Green, Ohio Exp. Sta. Bull. Vol. Ill, No. 9, 2d Ser., and 
N. Y. State Exp. Sta. Rpt. 1888, p. 190.) 

Chives are propagated by division. Secure some of the 
divided plants, set them in a corner of the garden, and go 
to them when onion flavoring is wanted. The plants are 
perennial, and will care for themselves if not choked out 
by weeds. Chives are perennials, and last for years. 

Leek may be grown in the same way as onions. If 
long white stems are wanted for eating raw, the plants 
should be blanched by deep planting and subsequent em- 
banking, something after the manner of treating celery. 

3. Leguminous Lrroup — Beans and Peas 

String beans are among the most popular of early spring 
vegetables. * Their value depends largely on having them 
early, and for this reason they should be sown as, soon as 
there is a reasonable probability of immunity from frost. 
Sow every two weeks thereafter for general use. For the 
earliest crops sandy soil and a southern exposure should 
be sought. The soil should be well prepared and well 
fertilized. It is useless to try to force early vegetables 



362 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

on a soil which compels plants to forage far and wide 
for a bare living. It is also evident that only the 
most soluble fertilizers should be used. The seed should 
be put in drills three and one -half feet apart if room 
can be afforded to work the ground with the horse, or 
the drills may be eight or nine inches apart in a bed 
if space is very limited. In the latter case, an abun- 
dance of water and manure is indispensable. Care should 
be taken, especially when rows are near together, not 
to sow too thick in the drills. One strong plant 
every four inches is better than three weak ones in 
the same row. If the ground is in good condition, 
without lumps, cultivation can be done with a horse 
cultivator, the wheel -hoe and the hand hoe. There is 
a grave mistake somewhere when beans or peas have 
to be weeded by hand. 

Beans should not be planted too deep, or the grow- 
ing top of the germinating plantlets will be torn off 
as they are pushed through the ground. Cover one and 
one -half to two inches. All varieties which are to be used 
green should be scrupulously picked as soon as fit to 
eat. If allowed to ripen they stop growth and produc- 
tion on the bearing plants. 

Probably the worst disease of string beans is the bean 
anthracnose, which causes brownish or reddish pitted spots 
upon the pods, spoiling their appearance and diminish- 
ing the yield. This may be successfully treated by 
soaking the seed for an hour before planting in a so- 
lution of three ounces of copper carbonate and one quart 
of ammonia to four and one -half gallons of water. 

The bean weevil is often a serious enemy in dry beans. 
Its ravages may be somewhat controlled by killing the 
insects in seed beans, either by subjecting them to a 
temperature of 145° F. for an hour as soon as gathered, 
or by treating with carbon bi-sulfid in a closed vessel. 

Varieties of String Beans. — The German Black Wax is 



BEANS AND PEAS 363 

the type of most of the yellow -podded varieties and 
the progenitor of many; but the newer and more care- 
fully selected sorts are likely to prove best in most 
situations. Of these Golden Wax, Flageolet Wax, Yo- 
semite Mammoth Wax, Valentine Wax and. Kefugee 
Wax are best known. Green -podded snap beans are 
not so popular, but find fair sale in some markets. 
Of these Early Red Valentine, Extra Early Refugee and 
Long Yellow Six Weeks are very good. 

SJiell Beans. — The varieties most commonly grown for 
dry shelled beans are White Marrowfat, Boston Pea, and 
White Valentine. 

The pole limas are very successful in certain lo- 
calities, especially southward. Standard varieties are Early 
Jersey, Dreer's Improved, King of the Garden, Ford's 
Mammoth, and the Sievas. 

The dwarf limas are of two general types, Bur- 
pee's Bush Lima being the best known large sort used 
shelled and green, and Henderson's Dwarf Lima being 
the commonest type of the small lima used green or 
dry. (Consult Bailey, Cornell Exp. Sta. Bulletins 87 and 
115.; also N. Y., State Exp. Sta. Rpt. 1883, p. 235, and 
Kans. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 1889, p. 133.) 

Peas. Sow the same as beans, except that they may 
be planted in earliest spring, even before frosts have 
passed. 

The most serious pests attacking garden peas are the 
mildew and the pea weevil. The former can be treated 
with some success by spraying with Bordeaux mixture. 
The weevil may be killed by the same means suggested 
for the bean weevil. 

Specially selected extra early varieties are offered in 
every seed catalogue. For the most part such sorts are 
good. Peas grown carelessly in the garden for a few 
years deteriorate greatly, and are not worth planting. 
Extra early varieties of merit are Alaska, Nott's Excel- 



364 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

sior, American Wonder, Little Gem, and Premium Gem. 
Second early varieties of general adaptability are Abun- 
dance, Advancer, Heroine, and Horsford's Market Garden. 
Late sorts and the so-called edible -podded sugar peas 
are of very limited utility in amateur gardens. The 
tall or standard sorts should be allowed to climb on 
brush or chicken wire. The half -standards and dwarfs 
may be planted in double rows, so that the plants tend 
to hold each other up. 

4. Brassicaceous Group — Cabbage, Kale, Cauliflower, etc. 

In the northern states, these plants will all do best 
when started early in hotbed, frame, or greenhouse, 
— from the last of February to April— and transplanted to 
the open ground May first to June first. Still, some per- 
sons are successful in growing late cabbage, kale, etc., 
by sowing the seeds in hills in the open ground where 
the plants are to mature. It is best to transplant the 
young plantlets twice, first from the seed-bed to boxes, 
or frames, about the time the second set of true leaves 
appears, placing the plants twenty-four inches apart each 
way, and transplanting again to the open ground in 
rows four to five feet apart, with plants two to four 
feet apart in the row. If the plants are started under 
cover they should be hardened off by exposure to light 
and air during the warmer hours of several days pre- 
ceding the final transplanting. 

The most serious enemy of cabbage -like plants is the 
root-maggot. See discussion of this insect on page 96, 
Fig. 96. 

The cabbage -worm (larva of the white butterfly shown 
in Fig. 240) can be despatched with pyrethrum or kero- 
sene emulsion. It must be treated very early, before 
worm gets far into the head. 

The club-root or stump-root, is a fungous disease, 



CABBAGES 365 

for which there is no good remedy. Use new land, if 
the disease is present. 

Cabbages. Early Jersey Wakefield, Early York and 
Early French Oxheart are best among extra early va- 
rieties. For a medium early crop, Winnigstadt, All 
Seasons, Succession, All Head, and Large Jersey Wake- 
field are all good. For late crop, Danish Ball Head, 
Late Flat Dutch and Large Late Drummond are valu- 
able. Early Red Dutch Erfurt, Red Dutch Drumhead 




240. Cabbage butterfly (female), parent of the cabbage-worm. 

and Mammoth Rock Red, are good red cabbages. Among 
the Savoys one might choose Perfection Drumhead, Early 
Ulm, and Extra Early Paris, with a preference for 
the earlier sorts. 

There are many ways of storing cabbages for winter 
and spring use, none of which are uniformly success- 
ful. Upon this point T. Greiner writes as follows: "I 
have heretofore piled a lot of cabbages cut from the 
stump in a conical heap in the field, and covered them 
with clusters of the outer leaves cut off with a piece 
of the stump. The le'aves are carefully placed over the 
heap in shingle fashion, so as to shed water. Cab- 
bages thus piled and covered may be left out until 
real winter weather sets in. But I find that slugs and 
earthworms frequently infest the cabbages thus stored, 
and do a good deal of damage. It might be well to 



866 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



place a solid floor of lime or salt upon the ground, 
and then pack the cabbages upon this. If to be left 




241. Suggestion for storing cabbages. 

out after severe freezing has set in, one should put 
additional covering, such as straw, corn-stalks or marsh 
hay, over the whole heap. Mr. Burpee's little book, 
' Cabbage and Cauliflower for Profit, ' w^ritten by the 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS 



367 



noted cabbage -grower, F. M. Lupton, suggests the 
following plan for early winter sales: 'Take the cab- 
bages up with the roots on, and store in well-venti- 
lated cellars, where they will keep till mid-winter. Or 
stack them in some sheltered position about the barn, 
placing one above the other in tiers, with the roots 
inside, and covering deeply with seaweed; or if this 
cannot be obtained, something like corn-stalks may be 
used to keep them from the weather as much as possi- 
















^^^■::y:mm 




242. A good cauliflowei" head. Leaves trimmed off. 



ble (Fig. 241). When thus stored, they may be ob- 
tained any time during the winter when prices are 
favorable . ' " 

Cauliflowers, more imperatively than cabbages, de- 
mand plenty of water and weather not too hot. When 
they begin to head, the large leaves should be bent over 
the inner part to whiten it. The earliest varieties may 
often be grown in localities where cauliflowers succeed 
only with difficulty. Extra- early Paris, Extra -early 



368 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 











24;j. A good pluiit of Brussels Sprouts. 



Dwarf Erfurt, and Early Snowball (Fig. 242), are good 
early varieties. For late planting, choose Autumn Giant 
and Lenormand Short Stem. 

Broccoli is in some respects superior to cauliflower, 
which it very much resembles. The early varieties with- 
stand drought and ill usage better than cauliflower, and 



CABBAGE -LIKE PLANTS 369 

are, on that aeeount, easier for the amateur to grow. 
Purple Cape is the hardiest variety, and has the best 
flavor when cooked, being much finer than cauliflower, 
but its color is a drawback. The large late varieties, 
and especially those of a biennial nature, may be avoided. 
Cultivate in all respects like cabbage. 

Brussels Sprouts may also be cultivated exactly like 
cabbage. As nearly all varieties are for late use, and 
are better after having been touched by frost, they may 
be handled with the crop of late cabbage or with kale. 
Paris Market is the best standard variety. Fig. 243 shows 
a plant well furnished with the little heads, each an inch 
or two in diameter. 

Kale is also best for use after frost, or even when 
kept into the winter or till spring. It may thus come in 
with the later crop of cabbage, 
being handled in exactly the gj, 
same way. Dwarf Curled and 
Tall Curled will please most 
people best. Kale produces c\ 
no dense head. The plant is 
used for "greens." 

CoLLARDS. This is a south- 
ern development of the kale '-"^ 

type, which is suitable to warmer 244. A good trellis for tomatoes 

holding the vines apart and 
climates and longer seasons. allowing all fruits to receive 

It is ranker in growth and '''^^ ^"<^ "^^*- 

coarser in foliage than the common kales. It is treated 

precisely like cabbage or kale. Georgia Collards is the 

variety mostly grown. 

5. Solanaceous Groups — Tomato, Eggplant, etc. 

These vegetables are all natives of southern zones, and 
have not yet become so far acclimatized in the North as 
not to need the benefit of our longest seasons. Plants 

X 




370 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 




245. Same variety of tomatoes grown on dry and good soil. On the 

former (upper cnt) there was not sufficient moisture to cause 

the fruit to fill out, and " rough " tomatoes were the result. 

should be started early, about March 1, under glass. They 
should be " pricked off," when the second leaves appear, 
three or four inches, apart, into flats or boxes. These 
boxes should be kept in a coldframe, to which an abun- 
dance of light and air is admitted on warm, sunny days, 



TOMATOES AND EGGPLANTS 371 

in order to harden them off. After all danger of frost is 
past, and the garden soil is well warmed, the plants may 
be finally transplanted. 

Tomato i>lants should set two or four feet apart, ac- 
cording to training, in rows six feet apart. Elaborate 
systems of training are often discussed and illustrated, 
but the simplest device which will hold the plants partly 
off the ground is all that can be recommended to the 
beginner. Very moderate pruning will sometimes succeed, 
but systems of close pruning are to be adopted in garden 
practice wnth caution. 
_ There are four distinct classes of tomatoes, classified 
on the basis of color of the ripe fruit, viz. : Reds, pinks, 
whites or creamy yellows, and bright yellows. The 
yellows are of little value. The creamy yellows, like 
Golden Queen, are very good dessert fruits. The varie- 
ties yielding dark red fruits are most popular. Of these 
Matchless, Stone and Perfection may be safely recom- 
mended, though there are many others of value. The 
pink varieties are typified by Beauty, and by Dwarf 
Champion, which is a plant of odd, dwarf habit, and well 
suited to very small home gardens. The Cherry and Pear 
tomatoes are often grown for preserving. (Consult Bailey, 
Cornell Bull. 32, and other writings.) 

The husk tomatoes {Physalis) sometimes offered in the 
catalogues on account of their smaller stature, may be 
treated more like peppers. 

Eggplants are somewhat difficult to manage in the 
North. It is a prime necessity that the plants shall 
be vigorous and healthy at the time of transplanting to 
open ground. Set two to three feet apart in rows three 
and one half feet apart, and give plenty of fertilizer and 
cultivation. New York Improved Large Purple is the 
type of variety chiefly grown (Fig. 246), though some of 
the smaller white-fruited sorts will doubtless give satis- 
faction in the home garden. The plants must always 



372 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



be started indoors or under glass for the North. (Consult 
Bailey, Cornell Bull. 26.) 

Peppers may be handled like eggplants, although some 
of the earlier varieties may be grown from seed sown in 




V N 



246. A good specimen of eggplant, ripening (in the Nortli) 
two or three fruits. 



the open ground at melon-planting time. Put plants one 
and one-half to two feet apart; rows three and one half 
feet apart. Bull Nose, Large Sweet Spanish, Procopp's 
Giant, Golden Dawn and Ruby King are useful large va- 



CUCUMBERS AND MELONS 373 

rieties for stuffing. Smaller varieties, like Chili, Bird's 
Eye, Red Cherry and Japan Cluster furnish the most 
pungency for seasoning. 

6. Cucurhitaceous Group — Cucumber, Melon, Squash, etc. 

All the members of this group are especially suited to 
outdoor culture, but they are all very tender to frost. 
Seeds must be planted somewhat shallow from early spring 
to midsummer. For the earliest cucumbers and melons, 
seeds are planted in frames. That is, each hill is enclosed 
by a portable box frame about three feet square and usu- 
ally having a movable sash cover. The cover is raised or 
removed in warm days and the frame bodily taken away 
when all danger of frost is past. In field culture, seeds are 
planted an inch deep, four to six in a hill, with hills four 
by six feet apart, these distances being varied slightly 
according to location and variety. Fine cucumbers are 
sometimes grown in hills surrounding a barrel in which 
manure is placed to be leached out by successive waterings. 

The omnipresent enemies of all the cucurhitaceous crops 
are the little cucumber beetle and the large black ' ' stink 
bug." Ashes, lime, or tobacco dust occasionally seem to 
show some efficiency in preventing the ravages of these 
insects, but the only reasonably sure immunity is in the 
use of covers over the hills (Fig. 93) . These covers are 
made by stretching mosquito netting over arcs of barrel 
hoops or bent wires. If by some such means the plants 
are kept insect -free till they outgrow the protection, they 
will usually escape serious damage thereafter. 

Cucumbers. The most popular type of this vegetable is 
the White Spine, which has run into many sub-varieties 
through diversities of cultivation and selection. The White 
Spine varieties are excellent for pickles, for slicing, or 
for forcing. For pickles, the smaller varieties, such as 
Wethersfield, Chicago Pickle, Early Cluster, Early Frame, 



374 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Parisian Prolific Pickle and Early Netted Russian are 
best. For slicing, Long Green and Nichol Medium 
Green may be added to White Spine. For use ripe, Giant 
Pera and Giant White are popular in some places. 

The Snake cucumber makes good pickles, but is chiefly 
valuable as a curiosity. 

West India Gherkins (Fig. 247) are thrifty and prolific, 
and make good pickles if cut young. 

MusKMELONS should be grown 
on warm, sandy land. Soil and 
location make very much dif- 
ference with the quality. The 
small green-fleshed netted varie- 
ties, improperly called canteloupes 
in many parts, are the favorites 
for garden culture. Of these. 
Early Netted Gem and Jenny Lind 
are the standards. Hackensack is 
a large spherical melon of fine 
quality for home or market gar- 
The Montreal Market is still a size larger, and 
may be relied on for yield and quality. Banquet is a 
fine, round, yellow-fleshed variety. Osage is an excellent 
melon of high quality. There are many other fine melons 
offered in almost every seed catalogue, and nearly every 
neighborhood has some favorite local variety. 

W^ATERMELONS are grown to perfection only in the 
South, but, South and North, demand a warm soil and 
exposure. There are several white or yellow-fleshed va- 
rieties, but aside from their oddity of appearance they 
have little value. A good watermelon has a solid, bright 
red flesh, preferably with black seeds, and a strong pro- 
tecting rind. Kolb Gem, The Jones, Boss, Cuban Queen 
and Dixie are the best varieties in general cultivation. 

Squash. Most of the squashes are especially liable to 
the insect attacks mentioned on the last page. It is, there- 




West India Gherkin. 



den. 



SQUASHES AND PUMPKINS 



375 



fore, desirable to secure the most vigorous start possible 
with the young plants. Among summer varieties, the 
Patty-pan or Bush Scallop, Red and White, are well- 
known. The Yellow Bush Summer Crookneek is one of 
the most desirable for cooking. The Hubbard squash is 
still the standard of winter sorts, followed by Marble - 
head, Fordhook, Essex Hybrid and Boston Marrow, 
Various Japanese types of squash (Fig. 248), are now 




248. A Japanese sqiiash, several types of which are now in 
cultivation in this country. 



coming to be popular, and many of them are excellent 
for both fall and winter use. 

Pumpkins. The old-fashioned yellow Connecticut Field 
pumpkin, which furnishes the basis of the New England 
pumpkin pie, has never been superseded in its own 
important line. The Quaker Pie pumpkin and certain 
varieties of so-called "sweet pumpkins" have mostly a 
local reputation and distribution. 

LuFFA. The "Dishcloth Gourd" or the " Vegetable 



376 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Sponge" is a euourbitaeeous fruit (Fig. 249), seeds of 
which are now commonly sold by seedsmen. The fibrous 
interior of the mature fruit is dried and used as a sponge. 

7. Salad Plants and Poi-lier'bs. 

These plants are all grown for their tender, fresh, suc- 
culent leaves. It is, therefore, manifestly expedient that 
they be grown in warm, mellow ground, well cultivated 
and copiously watered. Such small plants as cress, corn 
salad and parsley can be grown in small beds, or even 




249. Luffa, or Dishcloth Gourd. 



in boxes or pots ; but in a garden where space is not 
too scant, they may be more conveniently managed in 
rows, like peas or beets. This remark applies to all gar- 
den crops. Nearly all the salad plants may be sown in 
the spring, and from time to time throughout the summer 
for succession. (Consult Waugh, Vermont Exp. Sta. 
Bull. 54.) 

Lettuce is a typical salad plant, and, unfortunately, 
the only one well known in America. Seeds may be sown 
early in drills, the rows being three to" three and one half 
feet apart in the garden, or fourteen inches apart in the 
bed. Several successive sowings should always be made, 



LETTUCE AND CRESS 



377 



for lettuce rapidly loses its freshness and crispness. 
Golden Queen is a desirable early light- colored variety. 
Boston Market is a favorite with many. Tennisball, 
Black- seeded Simpson and Hanson are widely known. 
New York is a fine, strong -growing variety. Of the Cos 




250. Eudive tied up for blanching. 



:^-'^^ 



varieties, Trianon and Paris White Cos are best. These 
are often blanched for market by earthing up about the 
plants when they begin to head. 

Cress is a name which applies to several very diverse 
species of plants. The best for garden culture are Au- 
stralian or Golden Cress, or Extra Curled, or American 
Curled. These grow rapidly, and- are very fine. Upland 
cress is a different plant, resembling water cress in taste. 
Water cress may be easily grown almost anywhere that 
living, shallow water is at command. The garden varie- 
ties are sown in shallow drills, as already directed above. 



378 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

Corn Salad is less pungent than cress, but will not 
prove so generally useful. It is cultivated precisely like 
cress. Only one variety is offered by American seeds- 
men. 

Endive may be grown at almost any season of the year, 
from early spring to late fall. In mild climates it may 
also be sown in the fall, covered during winter, and 
harvested at the first opening of spring. Sow in drills, 
as directed for cress. The plants are best blanched. This 
is done by tying up the outer leaves on a bright, clear 
day (Fig. 250), or by covering the row with an inverted 
trough of boards, like a V upside down. It is then best 
to throw some earth against the trough to keep it cool. 
For winter use, plants may be taken out of the rows 
in fall, with a large ball of soil upon the roots, and 
stored in a cellar, or in a tight coldframe till wanted. 
White Curled is the best variety. Green Curled is hardier, 
but more refractory in blanching. 

Chicory is cultivated like endive, except that it is 
not so good for successional sowings, but is better for 
fall sowing and spring use. The plants are gi'own in 
drills, and when blanched like endive, make a delecta- 
able salad. The Large -rooted is the variety chiefly 
grown in America, the roots being used as a substitute 
for coffee. 

Dandelion, when grown and blanched like endive or 
chicory, makes a very acceptable salad. It is more often 
used, however, as a pot-herb, that is, for "greens." 
To secure it early in the spring for this purpose, fall 
planting is necessary. The plants are then covered with 
a clean mulch, which is removed at the earliest possi- 
ble moment in spring. It is worth while to sow selected 
seed. The Improved Large-leaved is a good variety. 

Spinach is more commonly grown for a pot-herb 
than any other plant. For early use it should be sown 
in the fall, and the plants wintered under a clean mulch, 



SPINACH, AND THE LIKE 



379 



which is removed as early as possible in spring. But 
it may he sown early in spring and in succession 
through the summer. Norfolk Savoy- leaved, Large 
Round -leaved Viroflay and Prickly are good varieties. 
Victoria is a recent novelty 
of real merit. New Zealand 
is a very different plant ; 
and though not so valuable 
as the true spinach, adds 
pleasing diversity to the 
garden. (Consult Kinney, 
R. I. Exp. Sta. Bull. 41.) 

Mustard. Almost all the 
mustards are good for greens, 
though white mustard is usu- 
ally best. Chinese mustard 
is also valuable . They should 
be sown in drills, three to 
three and one-half feet apart 
and covered with a half inch 
of soil. The ease with which 
they may be grown, and the 
abundance of herbage which 
they yield, mark their special 
utility. (Consult Bailey, 
Cornell Exp. Sta. Bull. 67.) 

Chard, or Swiss Chard, 
is simply a development of 
the beet species character- 
ized by large, succulent leaf- 
stalks instead of enlarged roots. The leaves are very 
tender and make "greens" much like young beets. 
They are cultivated exactly like beets. Only one variety 
is offered by most seedsmen in this country, though in 
France and Germany several varieties are grown (Fig. 251) . 

Sorrel may be sown in spring, in drills sixteen inches 




Swiss chard. 



380 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

apart in beds, or three to three and one half feet apart 
in rows. After the plants are well established they 
should be thinned to ten to twelve inches apart in the 
rows. They are perennial, and may be kept growing in 
the same place for several years. Broad -leaved French 
is the most popular variety. 

Parsley. Sow very early in the spring, in shallow 
drills fourteen inches apart, and thin out to six inches 
apart in the rows. For very early spring use, seed may 
be sown in the fall and the plants wintered under a light 
mulch. Extra Dark Moss Curled and Dwarf Extra Curled 
are desirable varieties, though any others will be found 
satisfactory. 

Rhubarb, while, strictly speaking, neither a salad 
plant nor a pot-herb, should be mentioned here. It may 
be grown from seed by sowing early in spring in fine, 
warm soil. But the best way to start it in a family gar- 
den is from the divided roots. These may be set two by 
three feet apart, in a corner of the garden, where they 
may remain undisturbed for several years. Victoria is 
perhaps the best named variety. 

8. Miscellaneous Vegetables 

Celery is by no means so difficult to grow as many 
people think. The seeds should be sown early by sprink- 
ling them thinly on top of a pot, pan or box of good, 
fine soil, and sifting a very little earth over them. Put 
them in a moderately warm room, greenhouse or hotbed 
to germinate. About the time the second leaves put out 
the plants should be "pricked off" into flats or boxes, 
being set about one and one -half to two inches apart. 
As the young plantlets begin to grow they should be 
"hardened-off" by uncovering the hotbed during the 
day, or otherwise exposing the plants to sun and air. 
After the plants have made a growth of four to six 



CELERY 



381 






inches, after the weather is bright and warm, in May 
or June, and after the soil has been thoroughly pre- 
pared, the ground may be marked off for rows three to 
four feet apart, and the plants set five inches apart in 
the row. They need to be liberally watered and fertilized, 
but fermenting manures must be avoided. The rows also 
need the most careful weeding and hoeing, especially at 
first. 

When the plants are nearly full grown, the blanch- 
ing may be begun. The older method consists in drawing 
up a quantity of loose soil about the 
plants, holding each one in the hand 
as it is embanked, and being careful 
to keep the earth from falling into 
the celery head. A more modern 
way is to set up boards on either side 
of the row, fastening them in place 
so as to keep out the sunshine. With 
the self -blanching sorts, which are 
now mostly grown, this method is 
easy of practice. Another method 
consists in setting plants of self- 
blanching varieties eight or ten 
inches apart each way in solid blocks, 
fertilizing and watering heavily, and depending upon 
the shading of the crowded plants to do the necessary 
blanching. 

Varieties most popular are White Plume, Pink Plume, 
Golden Self-blanching, Giant Pascal and Golden Heart. 
(Consult Greiner's "Celery for Profit," and Kinney's 
Bulletin 44, Rhode Island Experiment Station.) 

There are various methods of storing celery. (Consult 
Horticulturist's Rule-Book, 4th ed., and Bulletins, Cornell 
Exp. Sta.) It may be taken up in late fall and planted 
close together in trenches (Fig. 252), and then covered 
with boards; or wider trenches or pits may be made, 




252. Storiug celery 
in a trench. 



382 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



and a temporary shed constructed over the transplanted 
plants (Fig. 253). 

Celeriac, which is occasionally grown for home use, 
may be cultivated in the same way as celery, except 
that it does not need blanching. It is usually earthed 
up slightly, however, some time before harvesting. The 
edible portion is the turnip-like root (Fig. 254). 

Asparagus plants may be grown from seed, but it is 
easier and cheaper to buy them for small gardens. 
Good strong two or three -year-old plants should be set 
in wide open furrows six inches deep, three feet apart 
in the rows, with rows five feet apart. The furrows are 







253. Storing celery in a pit. 



then filled in slowly during summer cultivation, till the 
surface is entirely level. For the first two or three 
years, and occasionally thereafter, a heavy dressing of 
well -rotted manure should be worked into the surface 
in spring. Dressings with salt are often advised, but 
their value has not been fully ascertained. 

It is not advisable to cut the bed until the plants are 
three years set, and the cutting should always cease in 
June or by the first of July. 

In the fall all the old canes should be cut back and 



ASPARAGUS— CORN 



383 



burned. There is no great difference among varieties, 
but some of the newer ones, like Columbian Mammoth 
White or Barr Mammoth, have the presumption in their 
favor. 

In cutting asparagus, the knife should be inserted ver- 
tically (A, Fig. 255), so that the crowns will not be cut 

- --I.-' a.sV '1/1, v\i>A. 







i -^ 



^^ 



254. Celeriac. 



or injured. In the position B, the knife may do much 
mischief. 

Sweet Corn. Plant early sweet corn five or six grains 
to the hill, hills three feet apart, rows three and one- 
half to four feet apart, as soon as 'danger of frost is 
over. Cover and press down solidly with the hoe. Cory 
Early, Early Minnesota and Crosby Early are among the 



384 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



first to give good eatable ears. For the main crop, 
Stowell Evergreen, Ne Plus Ultra and Country Gentle- 
man may be relied upon. 

Okra, or Gumbo. This delicious esculent thrives in 
heat and drought, but is more difficult to grow in the 
cooler, moister seasons of our northeastern states. It 
has the same geographical adaptations as the watermelon. 
Sow the seed in drills at corn -planting time, in rows 
three and one -half feet apart, covering to a depth of one 
inch and pressing down the soil firmly. Thin the plants out 




255. Good and poor methods of cutting asparagus. 



to a foot or eighteen inches in the row. Cut the edible 
pods before they get stringy. White Velvet is the most 
desirable variety. 

Martynia. Seed may be planted in late spring in hills 
three feet apart and rows three and one -half feet apart. 
Cultivate like tomatoes. The pods for pickling should 
be cut when quite small. 

Artichokes have never become so popular in this 
country as to have produced a long list of varieties. 
Large Green Globtj is most commonly offered by seeds- 
men. The plant is allied to the thistles, and the edible 



ARTICHOKE— SWEET HERBS 385 

part is the great unopened flower-head. It is perennial, 
and may be propagated by suckers, but it is also grown 
from seed. Sow the seed in beds and the second spring 
transplant the seedlings to permanent quarters, letting 
them stand in hills three to four feet apart each way, 
with three or four plants in a hill. 

The Jerusalem artichoke is a subterranean tuber, and 
is most grown for pig forage. 

9. Sweet Serbs 

Every family garden should have a border permanently 
set aside for sweet herbs. A strip of land four feet wide 
and fifty feet long will ordinarily be ample, allowing the 
growing of squares or clumps of all the leading kinds 
of sweet, aromatic and condimental plants. One end or 
section of the border should be reserved for the peren- 
nial species, and the remainder for the annuals (those 
that must be re-sown each year). 

The perennial sweet herbs may be propagated by 
division, although they are usually grown from seeds. 
The second year — and sometimes even the first year — the 
plants are strong enough for cutting. Even with the 
perennial kinds, it is advisable to renew or re-sow the 
plants every few years, to prevent the beds from run- 
ning out. The common perennial sweet herbs are: Sage, 
lavender, peppermint, spearmint, hyssop, thyme, marjoram, 
balm, catnip, rosemary, horehound, fennel, lovage, winter 
savory, tansy, wormwood, costmary. 

The commoner annual species (or those which are 
treated as annuals) are: Anise, sweet basil, summer 
savory, coriander, pennyroyal, caraway (biennial), clary 
(biennial), dill (biennial), sweet marjoram (biennial). 



Y 



Section VI 



SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Although seasons and conditions vary so much 
m different years and different places that no 
hard and fast advice can be given for the per- 
forming of gardening operations, yet brief hints 
for the proper work of the various months may 
be useful as suggestions and reminders. Most of 
the older gardening books were arranged wholly 
on the calendar method, — giving specific direc- 
tions for each month in the year. We have now 
accumulated sufficient fact and experience, how- 
ever, to enable us to state principles ; and these 
principles can be applied anywhere, — when sup- 
plemented by good judgment, — whereas mere 
rules are arbitrary and generally useless for any 
other condition than that for which they were 
specifically made. 

The plan ting -table on page 387 is reprinted, by 
permission, from '^American Gardening," Febru- 
ary 22, 1896. It presents much advice in small 
space. 

The Monthly Calendars are compiled from files 
of the "American Garden" of some years back, 

(386) 



KITCHEN -GARDEN PLANTING TABLE 



A. Guide to the Proper Times for Sowing op Various 

Seeds in Order to Obtain Continuous 

Succession of Crops 



VEQETABLES 

la tiM 

KITCHEN QARDEN. 



Artichoke, American 
French . 
Asparagus . . 
Beans, Bush . 

" Pole and Lima 

Beets 

Borecole, Kale . 
Broccoli ... 
Brussels Sprouts . 
Cabbage, all sorts 

Cardoon 

Carrot . . 
Cauliflower 
Celeriac . . 
Celery . . 

Chicory 

Collards 

Corn, Field . . . 

" Sweet 

Pop ... 

" Salad 

Cress 

Cucumber ... 
Egg Plants . . . 

Endive 

Kohlrabi .... 
Leek 



6 



Lettuce . . . 
Mangel . . 
Melon 
Mushroom 
Mustard . . . 
Nasturtium 
Okra .... 
Onion .... 
Parsnips . . 
Parsley . . . 
Peas .... 
Pepper . . . 
Potatoes . . 
Pumpkin . . 
Radish . . . 
Rutabaga . 
Salsify . . . 
Seakale . . . 
Spinach . . . 
Squash . . . i . 

Tomato 6 

Turnips ..... I . 



12 



12 



4 4 



12 



12 



12 



12 



Explanation of 5lg:n8 Used 
In the Table. 



O To be sown Id opeo srouod 
without transplanting. 
Plants have to b« thinned out, 
given proper distance. 

1. Sow on seed bed to the 
garden, and transplant tbeace 
to permanent place. 

2. Make two sowings In 
open ground during the 
month. 

3. Make thr«e sowings (n 
open ground during the 
month. 

4. Start in greenhouse or 
hot-bed, and plant out »» 
soon as the ground Is In 
ifood shape, and weather per- 
mits. 

5. Sow In open ground h% 



6. To be grown only in hot- 
bed or greenhouse. 

7. Sow In cold frame, keep 
plants there over winter with 
a little protection ; plant oot 
in spring as soon as the ground 
can be worked. 

6. To be sown In open 
(ground, and protected with 
litter OTer winter. 

9. Plant In frame. When 
cold weather seta In, cover 
with eash and straw matJi. 
Plants will be ready for use 
in December and January. 

10. Plant in cellar, bam or 
under benches In greenhouae. 

11. Plant outdoors on pre- 
pared beds. 

13. Sow every week In grees' 
house or frame, to have a good 
iccesslon. 



K.B.— For last planting of 
Beans, Sweet Com, KoblrabK 
Peas and Radishes, or even 
Tomatoes, take the earliest 
varieties, junt the same as are 
used for first planting. 

The late sowings of Salsify 
I intended to remain undl»- 
turbed over winter. RooU 
from these sowings will, the 
next year, attain a siie double 
^thatOflUiUly seen 




256. BirdVeye .dew of the seasons in which the various garden products 
may be m their prime From "Popular Gardening." 



ADVICE FOR JANUARY 389 

wlien the author had editorial charge of that 
magazine. The advice for the North was written 
by T. Grein'^r, LaSalle, N. Y., well known as a 
gardener and author. That for the South was 
made by H. W. Smith, Baton Rouge, Louisi- 
ana, for the first nine months, and it has been 
extended for this occasion to the months of 
October, November and December by F. H. 
Burnette, Horticulturist of the Louisiana Experi- 
ment Station. 

1. FOR TEE NORTH 

JANUARY 

Cabbage plants in frames need free airing whenever the 
temperature is above the freezing point, or so long as 
the soil of the bed is not frozen. Snow, in that case, 
should be removed soon after its fall. As long as the 
soil is frozen, the snow can safely be left on for a num- 
ber of days. Cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce seed should 
be sown at intervals to secure plants for extra -early sales 
or setting. A month later they will be ready to transfer 
to boxes, which should go to the coldframe and be given 
protection by mats or shutters. 

Coldframes jnust be well ventilated on warm, sunny 
days ; leave the sashes off as long as is possible without 
injury to the plants. Keep the soil in a friable condition, 
and look carefully to any possible places where water can 
stand and freeze. If the frames seem too cold, bank up 
around them with coarse manure. 

Hotbeds. — Look up and repair the sashes. Save the 
horse-manure from day to day, rejecting dry litter, and 
piling up the droppings and urine -soaked bedding in thin 
layers to prevent violent heating. 

Lettuce in frames treat as advised for cabbage plants. 

Pruning should now be considered. Perhaps it is best 
to prune fruit-trees in March or April, but grapes and 
currants and gooseberries oan be pruned now. January 
and February are good months in which to prune peach 



390 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

trees. Thin out the peach trees well, taking care to 
remove all the dead wood. If you have much pruning to 
do in apple, pear or plum orchards, you will save time by 
utilizing the warm days now. Study well the different 
methods of pruning. Never let an itinerant pruner touch 
your trees until you are satisfied that he understands his 
business. 

Tools can now be inspected and repaired, and any new 
ones that are needed made or ordered. 

fJ:bruary 

Cabbage. — Sow seed of Jersey Wakefield in flats filled 
with light, loamy soil the last week of this month. Sow 
thinly, cover lightly, and place the boxes in a gentle hot- 
bed or any warm, sunny situation. When the plants are 
strong, transplant them into flats 1% inches apart each 
way. As growth begins, gradually expose them to the 
open air on all favorable occasions. Late in March re- 
move them to a coldframe, and properly harden them off 
before setting them in the open ground. 

Celery. — We urgently advise every one who has a garden, 
large or small, to make a trial of the new celery-culture. 
You need, first, good plants. Get some seed of White 
Plume or Golden Self-Blanching, and sow it thickly in 
flats filled with fine loam. Cover by sifting a thin layer of 
sand or fine soil over it, and firm well. Keep in a moder- 
ately warm place, watering as needed, until plants appear. 
If you have a number of flats, they may be placed on top 
of one another. At the first sign of plant-growth, bring 
the flats gradually to the light. When the plants are IX 
or 2 inches high, transplant them into other flats, setting 
them in rows 2% inches apart, the plants half an inch 
apart in the rows. Then set the flats in a coldframe 
until the plants are large enough to plant out in the open 
ground. 

Hotbeds for raising early plants should be made this 
month. Always break the manure up flne and tread it 
down well. Be sure to put enough in the center of beds, 
so that there will be no sagging. Fresh manure of hard- 
worked and well-fed horses, free from dry litter, is best. 
An addition of leaves used for bedding will serve to pro- 
duce a more moderate but more lasting heat. Sheep - 
manure may also be added to the horse-manure, should 
there be a scant supply of the latter on hand. 



FEBRUARY AND MARCH IN THE NORTH 391 

Onions. — We urgently advise giving the new onion - 
culture a trial. For seed, buy a packet or an ounce of 
Prizetaker, Spanish King, White Victoria, or some other 
large kind of globe onion. Sow the seed in flats, in a 
hotbed, or in a greenhouse late in the month, and trans- 
plant the onions to the open ground as soon as the latter 
is in working .condition. Set the plants in rows one foot 
apart and three inches apart in the row. Seed will be scarce 
this season, that of white varieties especially so. 

Plums. — Make a thorough inspection of all plum and 
cherry trees, wild and cultivated, for plum -knot. Cut 
and burn all the knots found. 

Bhubarb. — Grive the plants in the garden a heavy dress- 
ing of fine old compost. If you wish a few early stalks, 
place kegs or boxes over some of the plants, and heap 
over them some heating horse -manure. 



MARCH 

Beets. — A few seeds may be sown in the hotbed. 

Cabbage, cauliflower and celery seeds may be sown for 
the early crop. 

Eggplants. — Seeds should be sown. Take care that the 
young plants are never stunted. 

Grafting may be done in favorable weather. Cherries 
and plums must be grafted early. Use liquid grafting- 
wax in cold weather. 

Hotbeds may be made at any time, but do not grow 
impatient about the work, for there will be cold weather 
yet. Clean, fresh manure is necessary, and a layer two 
feet thick should be tramped hard. When once started 
and the seeds sown, do not let the beds get too hot. 
Give them air on fine days and give the seedlings plenty 
of water. Use two thermometers — one to test the atmos- 
phere and the other the heat of the soil. 

Lettuce should be sown in the hotbed for an early crop. 

Onion seed for the new onion-culture may be sown at 
the close of the month. 

Peas. — Sow now, if the ground can be worked. ■>. 

Peppers may be sown late in the month. ^- 

Potatoes kept for seed must not be allowed to sprout. 
Keep them in a temperature near freezing point. Rub off 
the sprouts from potatoes kept for eating, and pick out 
all decayed specimens. 



392 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Spinach. — Sow some seeds for an early crop. 
Tomato seeds may be sown in the hotbeds. 

APRIL 

Artichokes. — Sow the seeds for next year's crop. A 
deep, rich, sandy loam is best. Fork in a dressing of well- 
rotted manure around the old plants. 

Asparagus. — Spade in some good manure in the bed, and 
give the soil a thorough working before the crowns start. 
Sow some seeds in the open ground for young plants for a 
new bed. 

Beans. — Limas may be started on sods in a hotbed or a 
eoldframe towards the last of the month. 

Beets. — The ground should be prepared and the seed sown 
for beets for cattle as soon as the weather will permit. 
Put them in before planting corn. They will stand con- 
siderable cold weather, and should be planted early to get 
a start of the weeds. 

Blackberries should be pruned, the brush drawn off, piled 
and burned. If it is .necessary to stake them, try a wire 
trellis, the same as for grapes, putting on one wire two 
and a half feet high. The young plants should be dug 
before the buds start. 

Cahhage seed may be sown in the open ground, in cold- 
frames or in pans or boxes in the house. Early varieties 
should be started at once. Cabbages like a rich and 
heavy loam, with good drainage. Give them all the 
manure you can get. 

Cauliflower seeds may be sown toward the last of the 
month. They should never have a check from the time the 
seed is sown until harvested. 

Carrot. — Sow the seed of early sorts like Early Forcing 
as soon as the ground can be worked. 

Celery. — Plan to grow celery by the new method. Plenty 
of manure and moisture are required to do this. Sow the 
seed in light, rich soil in the house, hotbed, eoldframe or 
open ground. Transplant the plants once before setting 
them in the field. 

Cress. — Sow early and every two or three weeks. Water- 
cress should be sown in damp soil or in streams. The 
outer edges of a hotbed may also be utilized. Cress, is a 
very profitable crop when rightly handled. 

Cucumher seeds may be sown on sods in the hotbed. 

Eggplant. — Sow in the hotbed, and transplant when two 



APRIL IN THE NORTH 393 

inches, high to other beds or jDots. They must have good 
care, for a check in their growth means all the difference 
between profit and loss. 

Lettuce. — Sow the seeds in the hotbed and in the open 
ground as soon as it can be worked. Plants sown a month 
ago should be transplanted. 

Leek. — Sow the seeds in the open ground in drills six 
inches apart and one inch deep, and when large enough 
thin to one inch in the row. 

Muskmelon. — Plant some seeds in sods in the hotbed. 

Parsnip. — Dig the roots before they grow and become 
soft and pithy. The seeds may be sown as soon as the 
ground is dry enough to work. 

Parsley. — Soak the seeds in warm water for a few hours 
and sow in the open ground. 

Peas. — Sow the seeds as soon as the ground can be 
worked. They will stand considerable cold and trans- 
planting also. Time may be gained by sowing some seeds 
in moist sand in a box in the cellar and transplanting 
when well sprouted. Plant deep in light, dry soil, cover 
an inch at first, and draw in the earth as the vines grow. 

Potatoes. — Plant early on rich soil free from blight and 
scab. For a very early crop, the potatoes may be sprouted 
before planting. 

Peppers. — Sow the seeds in the hotbed or in the boxes 
in the house. 

Radish seeds may be sown in the open ground or in the 
hotbed and the crop harvested from there. The small, 
round varieties are best for this purpose. 

Strawherries. — Give a good, thorough cultivation between 
the rows and then remove the mulch from the plants, 
placing it in the rows, where it will help to keep the weeds 
down. 

Salsify. — Sow the seeds as soon as the ground can be 
worked. Give the same care and cultivation as for carrots 
or parsnips. 

Spinach seeds must be sown early, and then every two 
weeks for a succession. Thin out and use the plants be- 
fore they send up flower -stalks. 

Squash. — Hubbards and summer squashes may be started 
on sods in the hotbed. 

Tomato. — Sow in the hotbed or in shallow boxes in the 
house. Try some of the yellow varieties; they are the 
finest flavored of any. 



394 SEASONAL REMINDERS 



MAY 

Beans. — The bush sorts may be planted in the open 
ground, and Limas in pots or sods in a coldframe or spent 
hotbed. They require a long season to mature, and should 
be started early. 

Beets. — Sow for a succession. Transplant those started 
under glass. 

Cabbages always do best on a freshly -turned sod, and 
should be set before the land has had time to dry after 
plowing. The secret of success in getting a large yield 
of cabbage is to start with rich land and put on all the 
manure obtainable. Clean out the hog yard for this pur- 
pose. 

Cucumbers. — Sow in the open ground toward the last 
of the month. A few may be started as advised for Lima 
beans. 

Lettuce. — Sow for a succession, and thin to four inches 
in the rows. 

Melons. — Plant in the open ground toward the end of 
the month. It is useless to plant melons and other cucur- 
bitaceous plants until settled weather has arrived. 

Onions. — Finish planting and transplanting, and keep all 
weeds down, both in the seed-bed and the open field. 

Peas. — Sow for a succession. 

Squashes. — Plant as advised for melons and cucumbers. 
They require a rich, well-manured soil. 

Strawberries. — Remove the blossoms from newly-set 
plants. Mulch with salt or marsh hay or clean straw or 
leaves those that are to bear. Mulching conserves- mois- 
ture, keeps the berries clean, and prevent weeds from 
growing. 

Sweet corn. — Plant early and late varieties, and by 
making two or three plantings of each, at intervals, a 
succession may be kept up all summer and fall. Sweet 
corn is delicious, and one can hardly have too much of it. 

Tomatoes. — Set some early plants by the middle of the 
month or earlier, if the ground is warm and the season 
early and fair. They may be protected from the cold by 
covering with hay, straw, cloth or paper, or even with 
earth. The main crop should not be set until the 20th 
or 25th, or until all danger of frost is over. However, 
tomatoes will stand more chilly weather than is ordinarily 
supposed. 



JUNE IN THE NORTH 395 



JUNE 

Asparagus. — Cease cutting and allow the shoots to grow. 
Keep the weeds down and the soil well stirred. An appli- 
cation of a quick commercial fertilizer or of liquid manure 
will be beneficial. 

Beans. — Sow the wax sorts for succession. As soon as 
a crop is off pull out the vines and plant the ground to 
late cabbage, turnips or sweet corn. 

Beets. — Transplant in rows one to three feet apart and 
six inches in the row. Cut off most of the top, water 
thoroughly, and they will soon start. 

^ Cabbage and Cauliflower. — Set plants for the late crop. 
Rich, newly-turned sod and a heavy dressing of well-rotted 
manure go a long ways toward assuring a good crop. 

Celery. — Set the main crop, and try the new method of 
setting the plants seven inches apart each way, if you have 
rich land and can irrigate, but not unless these conditions 
are present. 

Cucumbers may yet be planted, if done early in the month. 

Curraiits. — Spray with Paris green for the currant worm 
until the fruit sets. Hellebore is good, but it is difficult to 
get it of good strength. 

Lettuce. — Sow for succession in a moist, cool, and par- 
tially shaded spot. The seed does not germinate well in 
hot weather. 

Lima beans should be hoed frequently and started on the 
poles, if they are contrary. 

Melons. — Cultivate often and watch for the bugs. A 
screen of closely woven wire or mosquito netting may be 
used to cover the vines, or tobacco dust sifted on thickly. 

Onions. — Keep free from weeds and stir the ground fre- 
quently, and especially after every rain. 

Squashes. — Keep the ground well cultivated and look out 
for bugs. (See melons.) Layer the vines and cover the 
joints with fresh soil, to prevent death of the vines from 
the attacks of the borer. 

Strawberries. — Plow up the old bed that has borne two 
crops, as it will usually not pay to keep it. Set the ground 
to late cabbage or some other crop. The young bed that 
has borne the first crop should have a thorough cultivation 
and the plow run close to the rows to narrow them to the 
required width. Pull up or hoe out all weeds and keep 
the ground clean the rest of the season. This applies with 
equal force to the newly -set bed. A bed can be set late 



396 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

next month from young runners. Pinch off the end after 
the first joint, and allow it to root on a sod or in a small 
pot set level with the surface. 

Tomatoes. — For an early crop train to a trellis, pinch off 
all side shoots, and allow all the strength to go to the main 
stalk. They may also be trained to poles, the same as 
Lima beans, and can be set closer if grown in this way. 
Spray with the Bordeaux mixture for the blight, keep the 
foliage thinned and the vines off the ground. 

Turnips. — Sow for an early fall crop. 

JULY 

Beans. — Sow the wax sorts for a succession. 

Beets. — Sow Early Egyptian or Eclipse for young beets 
next fall. 

Blackherries . — Head back the young canes to three 
feet, and the laterals also when they get longer. They 
may be pinched with the thumb-nail and finger in a 
small patch, but this soon makes the fingers sore, and 
where there are many bushes to go over it is better 
to use a pair of shears or a sharp sickle. 

Cabbage. — Set plants for the late crop. 

Corn. — Plant sweet corn for succession and late use. 

Cucumbers. — It is late to plant, but they may be put 
in for pickles if done before the Fourth. Cultivate those 
which are up, and keep an eye open for bugs. 

Currants. — Cover a few bushes with muslin or burlap 
before the fruit ripens, and you can eat currants in Au- 
gust. Use hellebore, rather than Paris green, for the 
last brood of currant worms, and apply it as soon as 
the worms appear. There is no danger in using it, 
even if the currants are ripe. 

Lettuce seed does not germinate well in hot weather. 
Sow in a moist, shaded position for a succession. 

Lima beans. — Hoe them frequently, and give assistance 
to get on the poles. 

Melons. — Watch for bugs, and apply tobacco dust freely 
around the plants. Keep them well cultivated. A light 
application of bone meal will pay. 

Peaches, pears and plums should be thinned to secure 
fine fruit and to help sustain the vigor of the tree. 
Ripening the seed is what draws on the tree's vitality, 
and if the number of seeds can be reduced one -half 
or two -thirds, part of the strength required to ripen 



JULY— SEPTEMBER IN THE NORTH 397 

them will go into perfecting the fruit and seeds left, 
and add greatly to the fine appearance, flavor and quality 
of the edible portion. 

Radislies. — Sow the early kinds for a succession, and 
toward the end of the month the winter sorts may be 
put in. 

Rasx)herries . — Pinch back the canes to two and one- 
half feet, the same way as given for blackberries. 

Squashes. — Keep the ground well stirred, and use to- 
bacco dust freely for bugs and beetles. Cover the joints 
with fresh soil, and apply the kerosene emulsion for 
the vine -borer. 

AUGUST 

Beets. —A last sowing of the early table sorts may be 
made for a succession. 

Cabbage. — Harvest the early crop, and give good culti- 
vation to the main crop. Keep down the bugs and worms. 

Celery. — The latest crop may yet be set. Earlier set 
plants should be handled as they attain sufficient size. 
Common drain tiles are excellent for blanching if one has 
them, and must be put on when the plants are about half 
grown. Hoe frequently to keep the plants growing. 

Onions. — Harvest as soon as the bulbs are well formed. 
Let them lie on the ground until cured, then draw to the 
barn floor or some other airy place and spread thinly. 
Market when you can get a good price, and the sooner the 
better. 

Tomatoes may be hastened in coloring by being picked 
just as they begin to color and placed in single layers in a 
coldframe or hotbed, where they can be covered with sash. 



SEPTEMBER 

In many parts of the North it is not too late to sow rye, 
or peas, or corn, to afford winter protection for orchards. 
As a rule, very late fall plowing for orchards is not ad- 
visable. Now is a good time to trim up the fence -rows 
and to burn the brush piles, in order to destroy the breed- 
ing places of rabbits, insects and weeds. Cuttings of 
gooseberries and currants may be taken. Use only the 
wood of the current year's growth, making the cuttings 
about a foot long. Strip off the leaves, if they have not 



398 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

already fallen, tie the cuttings in large bundles, and bury 
them in a cold cellar, or in a sandy, well-drained knoll; 
or if the cutting-bed is well prepared and well drained, 
they may be planted immediately, the bed being well 
mulched upon the approach of winter. September and 
October are good months in which to set orchards, provided 
the ground is well prepared and well drained, and is not 
too much exposed to sweeping winds. Wet lands should 
never be set in the fall; and such lands, too, are not fit 
for orchards. Strawberries may still be set; also, bush 
fruits. 

Seeds of various flowers may now be sown for winter 
bloom, if one has a conservatory or good window. Petu- 
nias, phloxes and many annuals make good window plants. 
Quicker results are secured, however, if border plants of 
petunias and some other things are dug up just before frost 
and placed in pots or boxes. Keep them cool and shaded 
for a couple of weeks, cut down the tops, and they will 
send up a vigorous and floriferous growth. Winter roses 
should now be in place in the beds or in pots. 

There will be odd days when one can go to the woods 
and fields and collect roots of wild herbs and shrubs for 
planting in the yard or along the unused borders of the 
garden. 



OCTOBER 

Asparagus. — Old plantations should now be cleaned off, 
and the tops removed at once. This is a good time 
to apply manure to the beds. For young plantations, 
which may be started now as well as in spring, select a 
warm soil and sunny exposure, and give each plant plenty 
of room. We like to set them in rows five feet apart 
and at least two feet apart in the rows. 

Cabbages.— The heads that will winter best are those 
just fully formed, not the over-ripe ones. For family 
use, bury an empty barrel in a well -drained spot, and 
fill it with good heads. Place a lot of dry leaves on top, 
and cover the barrel so that it will shed rain. Or, pile 
some cabbages in a corner of the barn floor and cover 
them with enough straw to prevent solid freezing. 

Cabbage -Plants started from seed last month, prick 
out in coldframes, putting about 600 to the ordinary sash 
and setting them quite deep. 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER IN THE NORTH 399 

Chicory. — Dig what is wanted for salad, and store it 
in sand in a dry cellar. 

Endive. — Blanch by gathering up the leaves and tying 
them lightly at the tips. 

General Garden Manageyyient. — The only planting that 
can be done in open ground at this time is restricted 
to rhubarb, asparagus, and perhaps onion -sets. Begin 
to think about next year's planting, and to make arrange- 
ments for the manure that will be needed. Often you 
can purchase it now to good advantage, and haul it while 
the roads are yet good. Clean up and plow the ground 
when the crops are harvested. 

Lettuce. — Plants to be wintered over should be set in 
frames like cabbage -plants. 

Onions. — Plant sets of Extra Early Pearl, or some other 
hardy kind, in the same fashion as in early spring. They 
are likely to winter well, and will give an early crop 
of fine bunching onions. For the North, fall sowing of 
onion-seed cannot be recommended. 

Parslcji. — Lift some plants and set them in a cold- 
frame four or five inches apart, or in a box filled with 
good soil, and place in a light cellar or under a shed. 

Pears. — Pick the winter sorts just before there is dan- 
ger from freezing. Put them in a cool, dark place, where 
they will neither mold nor shrivel. To hasten ripening, 
they can be brought into a warm room as wanted. 

Bhubarb. — If plants are to be set or replanted this 
fall, enrich the ground with a superabundance of fine 
old stable -manure, and give each plant a few feet of 
space each way. In order to have fresh pie -plant in 
winter, dig up some of the roots and plant them in good 
soil in a barrel placed in the cellar. 

Sweet potatoes. — Dig them when ripe after the first 
frost. Cut off the vines, and turn the potatoes out with 
a potato -fork or plow. Handle them carefully to pre- 
vent bruising. Only sound, well-ripened roots are in 
proper condition to be wintered over. 



NOVEMBER 

Asparagus. — Manure before winter sets in. 

Beets. — They keep best in pits. Some may be kept 
in the cellar for use during winter, but cover them with 
sand or sods to prevent shriveling. 



400 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Blachherries. — Cut away the old wood and mulch the 
roots. Tender sorts should be laid down and lightly 
covered with soil at the tips. 

Carrots. — Treats as advertised for beets. 

Celery. — Dig up the stalks, leaving the roots on, and 
stand them close together in a narrow trench, tops just 
even with the ground-level. Gradually cover them with 
boards, earth and manure. Another way is to set them 
upright upon the floor of a damp cellar or root-house, 
keeping the roots moist and the tops dry. Celery can 
stand some frost, but not exposure to less than 22° Fahr. 
The stalks intended for use before Christmas may in 
most localities be left outdoors, to be used as wanted. 
Should cold weather set in early, they will need covering 
in some way. 

Orchard Management. — Young trees should have a mound 
of earth raised around the stem as a support, and pro- 
tection against mice, etc. Small and lately planted trees 
must have stakes set besides them, and be tied to the 
stakes with a broad band. Apple and pear trees may 
yet be planted. Trim superfluous or unhealthy wood out 
of the old orchards. 

Spinach. — Cover the beds lightly with leaves or litter 
before winter sets in. 

Strawberries. — Soon it will be time to mulch the beds. 
Provide marsh-hay, or other coarse litter, free from 
weed-seeds, and when the ground has frozen an inch 
or so, spread it all over the surface thinly and evenly. 



DECEMBER 

Cahbages. — Plants in coldframes should be aired freely 
and kept cool. Heads intended for winter and spring use, 
if not yet taken in or protected from severe freezing, must 
now be cared for. Do not cover them too deeply, nor store 
them in too warm a place. 

CaiTOte.— Store them in cellars or pits. If in cellars, 
keep the roots covered with sand or sod, to prevent wilting. 

General Garden Management.— BQg\n now to make your 
plans for next season's work. Carefully study up the mat- 
ter of rotation, also that of feeding your crops in the most 
effective and economical manner. Eepair frames, sashes 
and tools. Clear up the garden and premises. Underdrain 
where needed. Beds for early vegetables should be thrown 



JANUARY IN THE SOUTH 401 

up in high, narrow ridges, with deep furrows between. 
This will enable you to plant them several days or weeks 
earlier than otherwise. 

Kale. — In very exposed or northern locations cover it 
lightly with coarse litter. 

0)1 ions. — For winter storage select only well -ripened, 
perfectly dry bulbs. Store them in a dry, airy place, not 
in the cellar. They may be spread out thinly on the floor, 
away from the walls, allowed to freeze solid, and then 
covered several feet deep with hay or straw. 

Parsnips. — Take up some roots for winter use and store 
them in sand in the cellar. 

Strawberry -beds should be given their winter covering of 
marsh-hay, etc., as soon as the ground is frozen solid. 



2. FOB THE SOUTH 

JANUARY 

Annuals. — All kinds of hardy annuals and perennials, 
such as alyssum, snapdragon, foxglove, hollyhock, phlox, 
poppy, pansy, lobelia, candytuft, sweet pea, Chinese pink, 
sweet-william, larkspur, foliage cinerarias, centaurea, mig- 
nonette, and many others of the same class may be sown. 
Most of them should be sown thinly, and where they are 
intended to flower, as they transplant poorly in this 
latitude. 

Cannas, caladiums, perennial phloxes, chrysanthemums and 
verbenas may be taken up, divided and re -planted. 

Roses may be planted in quantities. Let the ground in- 
tended for them have a thorough dressing of manure. 
Occasionally a plant can be taken up and divided. The 
hybrid varieties may now be layered. This is done as fol- 
lows : Select a shoot and bend it flat upon the ground ; 
hold it in both hands, having a distance of about six inches 
between them. Keep the left hand firm, and with the 
right give the shoot a sharp twist. Now cover it with 
four inches of earth and tie the free end to an upright stake. 

Asparagus beds should be liberally manured. New beds 
should now be made. Set the plants six inches deep. 
Sow seed now. 

Beets and all hardy vegetaHes (carrots, parsnips, turnips, 
ruta-bagas, kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, herbs, etc.,) may now 
be sown, planted or transplanted. 

z 



402 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Cahdage plants should be set out on heavily -manured 
ground. Sow seed of Early Summer for a later supply. 

Fruits. — If possible, all planting and transplanting of 
fruit-trees and grape-vines should be finished this month. 
Pruning should be completed as soon as possible, and 
preparation made to protect the blossoms of tender fruits 
next month. Set out strawberry -plants, and during dry 
weather run the cultivator through all old beds that are 
at all weedy. It is a good plan, where practicable, to 
mulch the beds. Here, pine -straw can be had plentifully 
for the purpose. Examine peach trees for borers. Rasp- 
berries and blackberries should be pruned now if the 
work is not already done. Cuttings of Le Conte pears, 
Marianna plums, grape-vines and pomegranates should be 
put in at once if they have heretofore been forgotten. 
Root-grafting should be progressing rapidly; this is best 
time for this important work. 

Onion seeds. — Sow at once, and plant sets as soon as 
possible. 

Peas. — Sow early and late varieties. The late varieties 
succeed best if sown at this season. 

Seasonable ivork. — This is a good month to obtain canes 
for staking peas, tomatoes and beans, hauling manure, 
making repairs and examining tools, etc. As the fall crop 
is harvested the land should be prepared for another crop. 
Tile-draining is now in order. Prepare frames to cover 
with canvas for use next month. 

Sweet potatoes. — A few may be bedded in a frame from 
which to obtain " draws " for settting out about March 15. 

Tomatoes, eggplayits and peppers. — Sow now on a slight 
hotbed. When the plants come up all the air possible 
should be given during the day. They can be raised 
without heat, but at this season this plan is likely to be 
attempted only by the skillful. 



FEBRUARY 

Asters, cannas, daJilias, heliotropes, lobelias, petunias, py- 
rethrum, ricinus, salvias and verbenas are best sown in a 
coldframe where they can have some protection from 
hea\'y rain. 

Cannas should be transplanted now. 

Chrysanthemums must be planted in well-manured ground 
in a position where water can be readily supplied to them. 



FEBRUARY IN THE SOUTH 403 

DaliJms may be taken up and divided as soon as they 
begin growth. 

Gladiolus and tuberose hulhs should he planted now. It 
is a good plan to extend the planting through March and 
April. 

Pansies. — Plant them out in the beds where they are to 
flower. 

Boutine worTx. — Sodding should now proceed rapidly. If 
sods cannot be obtained the ground may be planted with 
Bermuda grass. Plant small pieces of the grass a foot 
apart and water them if the weather is dry, and they will 
grow rapidly. Hedges should be cleared up and put in 
good shape. All planting of trees and shrubs should be 
finished this month. All pruning of trees, etc., must be 
done early in the month. Young roses cannot be set too 
early in February. They thrive best when planted in fall. 
Roll the drives and repair them where necessary. The 
lawn will now require constant care, and the mower should 
be used before the grass becomes 1% inches high. 

Bush-beans can be planted February 14. On alluvial 
land it is best to plant them on slight rises as a protection 
against the rains which sometimes occur toward the end 
of the month. If frost should threaten just as the beans 
begin to peep out, cover them an inch deep with the plow 
or hand cultivator. Sow Early Mohawk first, and at the 
end of the month sow Early Valentine; a week later sow 
the wax varieties. 

Cabbage. — Sow early varieties, such as Early Summer, 
Early Drumhead and Early Flat Dutch. Etampes, Extra 
Early Express and Winnigstadt sown for small heads in 
the order named have done very well with me. The 
earlier- sown plants should be transplanted as often as 
convenient. Should worms cause trouble, dust the plants 
with a mixture of one part of pyrethrum powder to six of 
fine dust. 

Carrots, celery, beets, endive, kolil-rabi, onion-sets, parsley, 
parsnips, radishes and purple- toj) turnips must now be sown. 

Corw.— Plant Extra Early Adams, Yellow Canada, Stowell 
Evergreen and White Flint toward the middle of the 
month. Sow again a week later, and again after another 
week. If the first two sowings fail, the last one will give 
the early crop. 

Cucumbers. — Sow and protect with small boxes during 
cold days and nights, or sow in pots or on sods. Protect 
the seedlings with sashes or canvas, and plant them out late. 



404 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Lettuce. — Sow seeds and transplant the plants on hand. 
This crop requires a soil well supplied with plant-food. 

Melons. — Plant seeds in the same manner as advised 
for cucumbers. 

Okra. — Sow seeds on sods and set out the plants next 
month. 

Peas. — Sow seeds of a number of varieties. 

Peppers and eggplants, if not sown last month, should 
be sown now. Sow them under glazed sashes and keep 
close. When the plants appear give some air, and increase 
it according to the weather. If a large number of plants is 
required the sowing may be delayed until next month. 
Should flea-bugs trouble you, use plenty of pyrethrum 
powder . 

Potatoes, Irish. — The main crop should be planted as 
early as possible. Standard varieties are Early Rose, 
Peerless and Burbank. 

Potatoes, sweet, can now be bedded and protected with 
canvas, or a row or two of whole tubers may be planted 
for ''draws" and vines. 

Straivherries. — Run the cultivator through them at least 
once every three weeks ; if they are to be mulched collect 
the necessary material. Strawberries planted in February 
seldom yield much of a crop. 

Tomatoes in frames should be given all the air and light 
possible and plenty of room; if protected with canvas, 
don't allow the plants to crowd. 



MARCH 

Beans. — Sow all varieties for a fall crop. As soon as 
the plants appear the cultivator must be run through the 
crop, and kept going as often as necessary. 

Corn. — Continue to plant; and we recommend harrow- 
ing the patch as soon as the young corn appears. It is 
generally planted in hills three or four feet apart, but 
better results will be obtained by planting in drills and 
leaving one stalk every twelve inches. 

Cucumhers. — Sow in hills four feet apart, using a liberal 
quality of seed to each hill. When the plants come up 
thin them to about six in the hill. When the plants be- 
gin to get rough leaves pull out one or two more from each 
hill. Striped cucumber-beetles are sometimes very numer- 



MARCH AND APRIL IN THE SOUTH 405 

ous, and in order to get a stand of plants it is necessay 
to go through the patch early every morning and sprinkle 
all the hills with air-slaked lime. 

Eggplants. — Toward the end of the month the plants 
growing in frames can be transplanted to their fruiting 
quarters. Seed can be sown outside after March 15; 
sooner if a warm and sheltered spot is selected. 

Lettuce. — Sow in drills, and when the plants are large 
enough thin to a foot apart. If transplanted at this sea- 
son they often go to seed. 

Okra. — A sowing can be made now, but the main plant- 
ing had best be deferred until after March 15. Sow in 
drills three feet apart and thin the plants to eighteen 
inches apart in the drills. 

Peas. — Early varieties may be sown; it is now too late 
to sow tall -growing kinds. 

Peppers. — Treat as advised for eggplants. 

Potatoes, Irish. — It is not too late to plant them, but 
the sooner they are planted the better. The crop planted 
in February should be harrowed as soon as the shoots 
begin to come up, and when the rows can be fairly seen 
the cultivator must be set to work to keep down weeds 
and grass. 

Potatoes, sweet. — If slips or vines are at hand they may 
be planted late in the month for the earliest tubers. The 
whole potatoes may be planted on a ridge to yield vines 
for later planting. 

Squashes. — Plant seed in hills six feet apart. The di- 
rections for planting melons can be followed. The same 
remarks apply to pumpkins and other vegetables of this 
kind. 

Tomatoes. — About March 15 the frame plants can go to 
their fruiting quarters. It is necessary to use some judg- 
ment in this matter, as they may be killed or injured by 
an April frost. Seed may be sown in the open ground 
for plants for late fruiting. Set the plants four feet 
apart each way. 

Strawherries. — The mulching of beds or rows should be 
no longer delayed, if clean and plentiful fruit is wanted. 

APRIL 

Alternantheras should go out now. 

Annuals of all kinds can still be sown where they are to 
flower, as they transplant with difficulty at this season. 



406 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

Coleuses. — Plant out in the beds now. Cuttings root 
readily, simply requiring to be stuck in. 

Beans of all kinds can be planted, Limas especially. 

Beets. — Make another sowing of these. 

Cabbage plants obtained from spring sowings should be 
set out as soon as fit. The ground requires to be very rich 
to carry this crop. 

Cucumbers. — These can be sown anywhere now. 

Corn. — Make a sowing to yield roasting ears to come in 
after that sown last month. 

Okra. — Sow in drills three or four feet apart. 

Peas. — Making a sowing of early varieties for the last 
time. 

Squash {bush) and pumpMn can now be planted. 

Tomatoes should be got out to their fruiting quarters as 
early in the month as possible. Let them be set at least 
four feet apart each way. 



MAY 

Beans. — Plant a few more bush and pole beans. 

Celery may now be commenced with. The bed or box 
needs plenty of water, and should be shaded from sun. 

Lettuce requires careful handling to encourage it to ger- 
minate. It is best sown in a box and kept shaded and 
moist. 

Melons, cucumbers, squashes and pumpkins can be sown. 

Radishes. — Sow the yellow and white summer varieties. 

Remarks. — It is a constant struggle with weeds through- 
out this month, and the cultivator and plow are ever 
going. As the land becomes vacant sow corn or plant 
sweet potatoes— draws or vines. Sow some late Italian 
cauliflower. Let the orchard have constant and thorough 
cultivation, and remove all unnecessary growth from the 
trees as soon as they appear. Be always on the lookout 
for borers. Keep the strawberries as free of grass and 
coco, or knob-grass, as possible. 



JUNE 

Beans. — All kinds may now be sown. 
Catdiflower . — Sow the Italian kinds. 

Corn.— Make a planting at the beginning of the month 
and again at the end, 



JUNE AND JULY IN THE SOUTH 407 

Cucumbers. — Plant a few more hills. The plants at this 
season must be given plenty of water. 

Endive. - Sow and attend to the tying up of the plants 
that are of sujffieient size. 

Melons. — Sow for a succession a few more water and 
muskmelons. 

Okra can still be sown. 

Radishes. — Sow the summer varieties now. 

Squashes and pumpTcins may yet be sown. 

Sweet poiaio vines may now be set out in quantities. 

Tomatoes. — About the middle of the month sow for the 
fall crop. 



JULY 

Beans. — Bush and pole beans can be planted towards 
the end of the month. 

Cabbage and cauliflower may now be sown, but the 
main sowing should be deferred until next month. 

Carrots. — A sowing should be made. 

Celery. — Sow and transplant what plants there may 
be on hand. 

Cucumbers. — These can be sown now for pickling. 

Endive. — Transplant and sow. 

Grapes should be kept well tied to trellis and unneces- 
sary growth removed, so that the wood may have the 
chance of becoming thoroughly ripened. If the cultiva- 
tor and plow are not used judiciously a second growth 
will be started, which is not desirable. 

Lettuce. — The seed requires to be sprouted before being 
sown, and if the sowing is done on a dry day the 
drills should be watered. 

Radishes. — Sow the summer kinds. 

Strawberries. — Keep the beds clear of weeds and grass. 

Tomatoes. — Make a sowing early in the month, or 
what is much better, take cutting from jplants still in 
bearing. , 

Turnips. — Sow a few after a shower towards the end 
of the month. 

Remarhs. — Much cannot be done this month, as the 
weather is hot and dry, but the opportunity should not 
be lost for killing weeds and preparing for the plant- 
ing season, which is now rapidly drawing near. 



408 SEASONAL REMINDERS 



AUGUST 

Artichokes, — Seed of the Green Globe can be sown now 
and large plants obtained by spring. The seed-bed re- 
quires to be shaded. 

Bush hearts, heets, pole deans, carrots, celery, endive, kohl- 
rabi, lettuce, mustard, Black Spanish ayid Rose China 
radishes, parsley, turnips, ruta-hagas, and salad j^l^nts of all 
kinds may now be sown. The seed should be sown on 
small ridges, proportionate to the kind of plants, for level 
culture is not successful in the vegetable garden in this 
section. 

Broccoli should be more cultivated, and is hardier than 
the cauliflower. Many cannot tell the difference between 
the two. Sow now. 

Cabbages must be sown by the middle of the month. 
Make the ground very rich and shade the seed-bed, keep- 
ing it moist during the whole of the time. 

Cauliflower should also be sown. 

Potatoes, Irish, should be planted by the middle of the 
month, if possible. Plant only those that have sprouted, 
and instead of planting on top of the ridge set in the fur- 
row and cover two inches deep ; as the potatoes grow, work 
more soil down to tliem. 

Potatoes, sweet. — Vines may still be set out, with pros- 
pects of harvesting a fair crop. 

Salsify. — Sow now or early next month. 

Shallots. — Plant them now. 

Squash. — Bush kinds can be planted now at any time. 

Tomatoes. — If short of plants, cut off good-sized limbs 
from bearing plants and plant them deep. Keep them 
moist, and they will root in a few days. Do this just be- 
fore it rains. 

SEPTEMBER 

Annuals of the hardy class may be sown this month ; the 
following list will assist in making a selection : Calliopsis, 
candytuft, calendulas, canterbury bells, columbine, corn- 
flower, daisies, forget-me-nots, gaillardia, godetia, lark- 
spur, Limnanthes Douglasii, mignonette, pansies, Phlox 
Drummondii, primroses, poppies of all kinds, Saponaria 
Calabrica, Silene pendula, sweet-williams and sweet peas. 

Bulbs. — Study the catalogues and make out your wants, 
for it is nearing planting time. 



SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER IN THE SOUTH 409 

Lilies. — If success is required of the St. Joseph's or 
Virgin lily {L. candidum), it must be planted right away. 

Perennials and biennials should be sown early this month. 
They have two good growing months ahead of them yet to 
make considerable progress. The seed-bed will require 
shade during the middle of the day until the young plants 
come up; frequent weedings will be required, as coco has 
not yet quit growing, and winter weeds are now putting in 
an appearance. 

Remarks. — All plants used for salad purposes can be sown 
this month. The ground between the rows of growing 
crops should be kept in a nice, friable condition. Vege- 
table seeds of all kinds should always be sown on slight 
ridges on all but very sandy soils. If the seed is sown on 
a level bed, as practiced at the North, the ground will 
become as hard as a turnpike road should a heavy rain 
occur; and should this shower come along before the plants 
are up, a crust a quarter of an inch deep will be formed, 
and the plants will never see daylight. Sown on a ridge 
they come all right, [as the water gradually drains away, 
leaving the top of the ridge nice and soft. 



OCTOBER 

Ml spring floimer seeds should be sown in boxes, or trays 
in the conservatory, and all spring bulbs should be planted. 
The hyacinth, narcissus, tulip and anemone, ranunculus 
and various lily bulbs, will bloom in good season planted 
at this time. The bedding plants should be carefully 
watched, so that any attack of aphis could be treated im- 
mediately. Sweet peas may be planted the first of this 
month, although they are commonly sown in September. 
A rich spot should be selected for them. This is the time 
to make the new lawn. The soil should be thoroughly 
stirred and well pulverized, mixing in a good dressing 
of commercial fertilizer, or if one prefers it, a mixture 
which may be made at home, consisting of cotton seed 
meal, acid phosphate and sulphate of potash, at the rate 
of 1,000 lbs., 300 lbs., and 100 lbs. respectively, per acre. 
A rich, well-rotted compost, as a top dressing, would also 
be highly beneficial. Roses pruned late in September or 
early this month will produce fine winter blooms. 

In the garden this is a busy month; some of the winter 
vegetables are growing, and others should be sown. The 



410 SEASONAL REMINDERS 

bud artichokes should be separated and set fully three feet 
apart. Onions may still be sown in the early part of the 
month, and shallots should be divided and set. Some beans 
may be risked, and English peas sown for winter crop. A 
few cauliflowers may be tried and cucumbers planted in pots 
for the hotbeds next month. The following vegetables 
should be sown: Carrots, corn salad, chervil, Brussels 
sprouts, broccoli, beets, endive, kohl-rabi, kale, lettuce, 
leeks, mustard, parsley, parsnip, radish, roquette, spinach, 
Swiss chard, salsify. Some cabbage and a few cauliflowers 
should be added to the list. 

Turnips should be sown for succession every two weeks 
until April or May. The celery should be kept growing and 
banking up commenced. This is an excellent time to plant 
the new strawberry bed. Make the bed rich with well- 
rotted manure and select good, healthy sets. The Michel's 
Early and Cloud are probably the most popular varieties 
for general planting, and should be set in alternating rows. 

NOVEMBER 

Flower seeds and hulhs may be planted this month of 
the same varieties as in October. Cuttings of all the 
herbaceous plants should be made and potted, for use 
in the house and for the borders next season. The cold- 
frames should also be put in order. Some of the bulbs 
for winter forcing should be selected and potted. One 
of the best Louisiana gardeners recommends the follow- 
ing treatment: Select good, strong bulbs and plant them 
in rich, light soil, in five inch pots, covering them about 
half an inch. Water well and bury the pots six or 
eight inches deep in the ground, leaving them there 
about five weeks, when the bulbs will be found to be 
well rooted. From this time gradually expose to the 
light, and they will soon put forth blooms. 

The same vegetaMcs may be sown as for October, 
and the late cabbage seed planted. The Flat Dutch and 
Drumhead strains are prime favorites. New sowings of 
peas, turnips, mustard and radishes should be made, 
and the hotbeds prepared and set out to cucumbers. 
Too much care can not be taken that the manure should 
be in the best condition possible, so that a good supply 
of heat can be depended upon. The cucumbers planted 
last month will be ready now for setting in the hotbeds, 
and a winter crop forced. 



DECEMBER IN THE SOUTH 411 

Orchard and vineyard planting. — This is the time to 
prepare land. That on which a late crop of cow -peas 
has grown is well suited for the purpose, and should 
be plowed deeply and well worked over. Towards the 
last of the month it should be cultivated again, in 
order to be ready for the trees next month. 



DECEMBER 

Lawns and yards need watching this month, and at- 
tention should be paid to the old leaves and fall 
rubbish, which makes the yard look untidy. A good 
place for the leaves is the compost heap. Hedges 
should be put in shape and the surface drains kept 
open. Shrubs and roses should be pruned for an early 
supply of flowers. The Camellia Japonicas are now in 
bloom, and care should be taken that the small branches 
are not torn off, instead of being cut properly. Many 
of these most beautiful of southern ornamental trees 
have been ruined by careless plucking of flowers. 

Garden and orchard. — Many of the fall vegetables may 
be sown this month and others sown for a succession. 
Peas, spinach, roquette, radishes, lettuce, endive, and 
some Early York cabbage should also be sown. In the 
old spent hotbeds, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants may 
be started ; there will not be enough heat to hurry them, 
and good, strong stocky plants will be secured if care 
is taken. Irish potatoes may be risked, should there be 
a favorable time for planting during the latter part of 
the month. Usually they are planted in January. The 
chances are about equal should they be planted late this 
month. Nuts of all kinds, both for budding and other- 
wise, should be planted. Some of the best Louisiana 
pecans are said to come true from seed, and may be 
sown where they are intended to grow. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Aconite, Winter 272 

Alliaceous plants 360 

Alonsoa 257 

Amaranthus 252 

Ammoniacal copper carbonate . 100 

Andromedas 217 

Animals, injuries by 103 

Anise 385 

Annuals 255 

Apple 308 

Apple-scab 312 

Apricot 323 

Aquatics 242 

Aralia 253 

^Artichoke 384 

i,- Asparagus 382 

Asters 257 

Bagging grapes 335 

Balm 385 

Bamboo 290 

Banana 330 

Banks 181 

Bartonia 258 

Basil 385 

Bavarian garden 352 

Beans 361 

Bedding 241, 243 

; Beets 353 

Bordeaux mixture 99 

Borders 142, 217 

Blackberries, protecting 63 

Blackberry 339 

Blight of pear 316 

Brachycome 258 

Brassicaceous plants 364 

Broccoli 368 

Brussels Sprouts 36D 



PAGK 

Bryonopsis 263 

Bulbs 267 

Burdock 5 

Burnette, F. H., Calendars by . 389 

Burpee, book by 366 

Cabbage maggots 96 

Cabbages 365 

Calendars 386 

Calliopsis 258 

Campanulas 285 

Canker-worm 92 

Cannas 253 

Caraway 385 

Cardiospermum 265 

Carpet-bedding 140, 243 

i^Carrots 355 

Castor oil plant 254 

Catnip 385 

► Cutworms 93 

Cauliflowers 367 

Celeriac 382 

Celery 380 

I- Cellars for fruit 306, 307 

Cement 195 

Chard 379 

Cherry 323 

Chicory 378 

Chionodoxa 272 

Climbing plants 213, 214, 235, 

263, 291 

Chives 361 

Chrysanthemums 258, 288 

City lot, plants for 168 

Clarkia 259 

Clary 385 

Clematis 236, 293 

Coboea 265 



(413) 



414 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Coldframes 71 

Collards 369 

Columbine 284 

Conifers 216, 225-234 

Convallaria 272, 282 

Convolvulus 265 

Copper carbonate 100 

Coreopsis 258 

Coriander 385 

Corn 383 

Corn Salad 378 - 

Costmary 385 

V Covering plants 60 

Cress 377 

Crocus 270 

Curbs 183, 189 

'. Cucumbers 373 

Cucurbitaceoiis plants 373 

Cnrculio 318 

Currants 340 

Curves 186 

Daffodil 271 

Dahlia 275 

Dandelion 378 

Dewberry 339 

Dibbers 41 

Dill 385 

Discloth Gourd 875 

Diseases 88 

Dolichos 265 

Donnell, Webb 352 

Draining 12 

Draining streets 191 

Drives 184 

Dwarf fruits 304 

Eecremocarpus 265 

Edgings 251 

Eggplant 371 

Endive 378 

Enriching land 114 

Eranthis 272 

Erythronium 282 

Eschscholtzia 259 

/ Evergreens 216, 225, 234 



PAGE 

Falconer, book by 353 

Falconer, quoted 144 

Fences 183 

Fennel 381 

^Fertilizers 114 

Fig 333 

Filling about trees 185 

Flower-beds 136, 142, 241 

Flower-border 142 

Flower-garden 136, 142, 144 

Flowers 138, 144, 241 

Forcing G7 

Forcing-box 69 

Forcing-hill 67 

Forcing-house 83 

Forsythias 213 

Frames 71 

Fungi 88 

Fruit-plantation 302 

Fumigating 97 

Fundamentals of landscape 

gardening 154 

Gaillardia 559 

Galanthus 271 

Gall on grape 334 

Galls 91 

Gilia 259 

Gladiolus 274 

Godetia 259 

Goff , quoted 96 

Gooseberries 342 

Gourd 375 

Grading 177, 200 

Grafting-wax 108 

i' Grape 332 

V' Grass for lawns 201 

Grasses, hardy 290 

Greiner, T., calendars by 389 

Guards for trees 103 

Gumbo 384 

Gutter 196 

Hand-box 69 

Harrows 20 

Heeling-in 58 



INDEX 



415 



PAGE 

Hedges 214 

Hellebore 99 

'.Keeping fruit 307 

Herbaceous perennials . 238, 278, 291 

Hicks, moving trees 47 

Hitching posts 104 

Hitching to a tree 109 

Hoes 24 

Hop 265 

Horehound 385 

Horse, hitching 109 

^'Horse-radish 359 

Hotbeds 75 

Humulus 265 

Husk tomato 371 

Hyacinth 270 

Hyssop 385 

Insects 88, 93 

Ipomoea 265 

Jonquil 271 

June-grass for lawn 201 

Kainit 118 

Kale 3C9 

Kalmias 217 

Kerosene emulsion 99 

King, book by 7, 116 

Kitchen garden 348 

Labels 109 

Lavender 385 

Land, enriching 114 

— preparing the 7 

Lawn 132, 139 

V — making 199 

Laying down plants C2 

Leek 3G1 

Lettuce 376 

Leguminous plants 361 

Lilies 272 

Lily-of-the-valley 272, 282 

Lima beans 363 

Lodeman, book by 100 

London purple 98 

Long, quoted 217 

Lovage 385 



PAGE 

Lombardy 151 

Luffa 375, 376 

Lupton, qixoted 367 

Maggots in cabbage 96 

Maize 254 

Manures 114 

Maps and plans 195 

Marigold 261 

Marjoram 385 

Markers 35 

Martynia 384 

Mass-beds 251 

Mathews, quoted 142 

Mats 86 

Maurandya 265 

Melons 374 

Mice 105 

Michigan, list for 220 

Mimulus 261 

Mint 385 

Moisture, saving 7 

Morning-glory 265 

Mowing lawns 204 

Moving trees 45 

Mulching 59 

Muskmelons 374 

Mushrooms 353 

Mustard 379 

Narcisstis. 270 

Nasturtium 263, 266 

Nectarine 323 

Nemophila 261 

Nitrogen 116 

Nozzles 102 

Okra 384 

Old-fashioned gai-den 144 

Olive 329 

/Onion 360 

Orange 325 

Pansy 261 

Paris green 98 

Parlsey 380 

Parsnips 357 

Peach 319 



416 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Pear 313 

; Peas 363 

Pea, Sweet 266 

Pennyroyal 385 

Peppermint 385 

Peppers 372 

Petunia 262 

Phlox 262 

Phosphoric acid 116 

Physalis 371 

Picture in landscape 121 

Pineapple 330 

Plan of the place 120 

Plans and maps 195 

Plant-food lit 

Planting ornamental grounds. . .211 

Plowing 18 

Plum 317 

Polyanthus 271 

Poplar, Lombardy 151 

Poplars 151,212 

Papaver 262 

Poppy 262 

Portulacca 251 

V Potash 116 

V Potato 359 

Pot-herbs 376 

Preparing the land 7 

Protecting plants 58 

Pruning 53, 133, 306 

V' Pumpkins 375 

Pumps 101 

Quince 325 

Rabbits 105 

Radish 357 

Raking lawns 205 

Raisins 335 

Raspberry 336 

Records 109 

Reeds 290 

Rhododendrons 217 

V Rhubarb 380 

Ribbon-beds 251 

Ricinus 254 



PAGE 

Roberts, book by 7, 10, 116 

Rollers 33 

Rolling lawns 207 

> Root crops 353 

Rosemary 385 

Roses 148, 229, 294 

> Ruta-bagas 355 

Sage 385 

Salad plants 376 

Solanaceous plants 369 

Salsify 357 

Salvia 262 

Savory 385 

Seed, sowing 37 

Scale insects 93 

School grounds 198 

Scilla 272 

Shade, plants for 210 

Shearing plants 39 

Shelter belts 221 

Shrubs for city lot 168 

-list of 226 

Simonds, O. C 189 

Small-fruits 336 

Smith, H. W., calendars by .... 389 

Snow-drop 271 

Socrates, quoted 2 

Sodding 207 

Sorrel 379 

Sowing seed 37 

Spearmint 385 

. Spinach 378 

Sponge, vegetable 376 

Spraying 98 

(, Spuds 32 

Squash 374 

Stake label 109 

Storing fruits 300-308 

! Strawberries 343 

Streets, suburban 189 

Subsoiling 16 

Sub-tropical fruits 325 

Suburban streets 189 

Sunken fence 183 



INDEX 



417 



PAGE 
Sweet corn 383 

— herbs 385 

— pea 266 

— potato 359 

Swiss Chard 379 

Sylvinit 118 

Taft, L. R., on fruits 305 

Tallies 110 

Tansy ...385 

Tarryer, quoted. 25 

Terraces 179 

Thyme 385 

Time to plant 55 

Tomato 371 

Torenia 252 

Tracy's kitchen garden 349 

Transplanting 38, 44, 217 

Trees, age to buy 305 

— list of 221 

— moving 45 

Tricker, book by • 243 

Trillium 281 

Trowels 32 

Tropoeolum 263, 266 

Tropical effects 252 

Tuberose 277 

Tulip 270 

Turnip 354 



PAGE 

Vegetable garden 348 

Vegetable sponge 375 

Verbena 263 

Vermin 105 

Vines 214, 235 

Vista 125 

Walker, Ernest 241 

Walks 184 

Water lilies 243 

Watermelons 374 

Waugh on vegetables 353 

Wax, grafting 108 

Weeders 35 

Weedland 147 

Weeping trees 151, 172 

Wheel-hoes 22 

Whitewashing 64 

Whitlavia 252 

Whitten, quoted 64 

Wigandia 254 

Willows 153 

Windbreaks 221 

Winter protection 58 

Wormwood 385 

Yards 159 et seq. 

Yellows 321 

Zea 254 

Zinnia 263 



AA 



SCIENCE READERS 

BY 

VINCENT T. MURCHE 

Revised and Adapted for Use in Schools, with a Preface by 
MRS. L. L. W. WILSON, Philadelphia Normal School 









NOW 


READY 






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I. 


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25 cents. 


Vol. IV. 


Price, 


40 cents. 


Vol. 


II. 


Price, 


25 cents. 


Vol. V. 


Price, 


50 cents. 


Vol. 


III. 


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Vol. VI. 


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These books are beautiful, reliable, and made on professional lines. They 
furnish the information that is most useful, graded skillfully, written admirably. 
In style, material and method these books are admirable.— iV<?w England Jour- 
nal of Education- 

As supplemental readers they are excellent, and, used in connection with the 
object lessons, they make the most complete set of books yet designed for science 
teachers. Our teachers have been delighted with them.— From a prominent 
educator. 



NATURE STUDY FOR ELEMEN- 
TARY SCHOOLS 

BY 

MRS. L. L. W. WILSON, Ph.D., Philadelphia Normal School 

IN TWO VOLUMES 

Vol. I. Reader. In Press. Vol. II. Teachers' Manual. Beady. 90c. 

This course of Nature Study has already been subjected to the test 
of practical application in the school room, with excellent results. It 
may be pursued with profit to teacher and pupil in any one of the first 
four years of school life, and in any school, however poorly equipped. 

It is planned chiefly to meet the needs of the ordinary grade teacher 
in the public schools, and does not presuppose special training on her 
part, nor special facilities for the collection of material. It does, how- 
ever, take for granted a strong desire on the teacher's part to do this 
work, a lively belief in its efficacy, and an earnest effort to become better 
acquainted with the familiar, yet to most of us unknown, face of nature. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Ave., NEW YORK 



LESSONS WITH PLANTS 



BY 



L. H. BAILEY 

Suggestions for Seeing and Interpreting some of 
the Common Forms of Vegetation 



12mo, Half Leather, Price $1.10 net 



WITH DELINEATIONS FROM NATURE BY 

W. S. HOLDSWORTH 

Assistant Professor op Drawing in the Agricultural College op 

Michigan 



''The clear text, beautiful illustrations, strong binding and most 
important of all, the very excellent arrangement of the subject matter, 
make it an invaluable adjunct to the working materials of a busy 
teacher. Aside from its value as a thoroughly up-to-date text book, 
it is equally indispensable to the busy teacher as a reference book 
on account of the clear, concise and unique manner of the arrange- 
ment of its contents." 

MISS L. M. ELLIOT, 

Grammar School No. 82, 

New York City. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Ave., NEW YORK 
BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 



The Unral Sdence Series. 

Edited by Professor L. H. Bailey. 

BOOKS which state the underlying principles of agriculture 
in such language that they may be read at the home 
fireside, in the office, at the club or grange, or used as 
text-books. Each is substantially bound in blue cloth. 
These books combine the results of the very latest and best 
science with the best skill of practical farm work and manage- 
ment. Each one is written by a specialist who has attained 
reputation for long-continued and conscientious work, Each 
volume is readable, simple, elear-eut, ppaetieal, up 
to date, and thoroughly scientific and reliable. The 
detailed information given in these volumes is of the most val- 
uable character to every cultivator of the soil. Five volumes 
are now ready : 



THE SOIL I ^^^ Nature, Relations, and Fundamental 
Principles of Management. By F. H. 

King, Professor of Agricultural Physics in the University of 
Wisconsin. 303 pages, 45 illustrations. 75 CtS. 

It comprises an introduction, which discusses the making of soils 
by natural agencies ; and chapters follow on the nature, functions, 
origin and wasting of soils ; texture, composition, and kinds of 
soils ; nitrogen of the soil ; capillarity, solution, diffusion, and 
osmosis ; soil water ; conservation of soil moisture ; distribution 
of roots in the soil ; soil temperature ; relation of air to the soil ; 
farm drainage ; iri'igation ; physical effect of tillage and fertilizers. 
It has received the warmest approbation of teachers and" farmers 
ill all parts of the country. 

" I consider it a most desirable addition to our agricultiiral literature, and 
a distinct advance over previous treatises on the same suliject, not only for 
popular use, but also for students and specialists, who will lind many new and 
useful suggestions therein." E. W. Hilgard, 

Director of Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Berkeley, Cal. 



THE FERTILITY OF THE LAND : a summary 

Sketch of 

the Relationship of Farm-Practice to the Maintaining 
and Increasing of the Productivity of the Soil. By 

I. P. Egberts, Director of the College of Agriculture, Cornell 
University. 440 pages; fully illustrated. $1.25 



^ht ^nxnl S>txtntt S>txxtt, 

Edited by Professor L. H. Bailey. 

THE SPRAYING OF PLANTS : a Sueeinet Ae- 

count of the 

History, Principles and Practice of the Application of 
Liquids and Powders to Plants for the Purpose of 
Destroying Insects and Fungi. By E. G. Lodeman, late 
Instructor in Horticulture in the Cornell University. 399 
pages, 92 illustrations. $1.00 

The only complete manual of the spraying of plants, and the 
standard work upon the subject. The first part is a complete his- 
tory of the rise of spraying, both in this country and abroad. 
There are also full illustrated accounts of pumps and nozzles, 
complete recipes of formulas, and the like. The second part, com- 
prising 135 pages, is an alphabetical illustrated account of the 
various insects and fungi, with methods of treating them. The 
book as a whole is not only a complete monograph upon the sub- 
ject, but a most valuable manual of practice. 

" I have looked it carefully over with a great deal of interest, and feel that 
it is a very timely book, and one that can be safely recommended to all horti- 
eultiirists and fruit-growers as the best." Pres. H. H. (tOODEll, 

Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
Amherst, Mass. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF FRUIT-GROWING: 

By Professor L. H. Bailry. 520 pages, 114 illustrations. $1.25 

This book is designed to treat all those underlying matters of 
fruit-growing which are common to most or all of the various 
fruits. Tlie author in preparing a monograph upon the Apple, 
concluded that it would serve the purpose of his readers better 
if all the essentials of fruit-growing were placed in a separate and 
initial volume. He has, therefore, delayed the preparation of the 
Apple book for the present. 

" The Principles of Fruit-Growing" is a unique book, and brings 
the very best science of the day to join hands with the best prac- 
tice. It includes illustrations of every important operation, and 
may be taken as a consensus of the opinions and methods of the 
most successful growers. The contents are as follows : Intro- 
ductory Discussion, comprising an inventory and classification of 
fruits, the fruit zones, the outlook for fruit-growing ; the Location 
and Its Climate, with a full discussion of frosts ; the Tilling of 
Fruit Lands ; the Fertilizing of Fruit Lands ; the Planting of 
Orchards ; Secondary Cai*e of Orchards ; Diseases, Insects and 
Spraying; Picking and Packing and Storing Fruits, Shipping, etc.; 
and a bibliography of American wi'itings on the subject. 



Tht Hural Stxtntt S^riBS, 

Edited by Professor L. H. Bailey. 

MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS: * Treatise upon 

the Nature and 

Qualities of Dairy Milk, and the Manufacture of But- 
ter and Cheese. By Henry H. Wing, Assistant Professor 
of Dairy Husbandry in the Cornell University. 280 pages, 
33 illustrations. $1.00 

This is the only book which adequately covers the whole field of 
dairying. Its range is indicated by the table of contents : Secre- 
tion of Milk ; Composition of Milk ; Testing of Milk ; Ferments 
and Fermentations of Milk, and their Control; Market Milk ; Sep- 
aration of Cream ; Ripening of Cream ; Churniug ; Finishing and 
Marketing Butter ; Milk for Cheese-Making ; Cheddar Cheese- 
Making ; Varieties of Cheese ; By-Products of the Dairy ; Butter 
and Cheese Factories ; Statistics and Economics of the Dairy In- 
dustry ; Appendix, comprising useful rules and tests, metric sys- 
tem, dairy laws, and references to dairy literature. 

*** So long as the demand warrants, new volumes will be added 
to the Rural Science Library. Definite arrangements have now 
been completed for the following : 

PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS. By J. C. Arthur, Purdue Univ. 

PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING OF ANIMALS. By W. H. 

Brewer, of Yale University. 

BUSH FRUITS. By F. W. Card, of University of Nebraska. 
PLANT PATHOLOGY. By B. T. Galloway and associates, of 

United States Department of Agriculture. 
SEEDS AND SEED-GROWING. By G. H. Hicks, of United 

States Department of Agriculture. 
LEGUMINOUS PLANTS AND NITROGEN-GATHERING. By 

E. W. Hilgard, of University of California. 

FEEDING OF ANIMALS. By W. H. Jordan, of New York 
State Experiment Station. 

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE. By F. H. King, of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. 

FERTILIZERS. By E. B. Voorhees, of N. J. Exp. Station. 

RURAL WEALTH AND WELFARE. By George T. Fair- 
child, Ex-President of the Agricultural College of Kansas. 

FARM POULTRY. By George C. Watson, of Pennsylvania 
State College. 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK. 



Edited by Professor L. H. Bailey. 



c 



OMPRISING practical hand-books explaining the methods 
practiced by the horticulturist. They are tastily bound 
in green flexible cloth. Four volumes are now ready, 
all written by Professor Bailey, of Cornell University. 



PLANT -BREEDING: ^^^^S Five Lectures upon 
the Amelioration of Domes- 
tie Plants. 293 pages, 20 illustrations. ■ $1.00 

This is the only book devoted to this subject. It comprises five 
chapters or lectures : The Fact and Phylosophy of Variation ; 
The Philosophy of the Crossing of Plants ; How Domestic Varieties 
Originate ; Borrowed Opinions, being translations from the writ- 
ings of Verlot, Carriere, and Focke ; Pollination, or How to Cross 
Plants. Chapter IH. contains the list of fifteen rules for plant- 
breeding which DeVarigny, the eminent French writer, has called 
"the quindecalogue of the horticulturist," and of which he says, 
"Solomon — if he had devoted himself to horticulture — could not 
have judged more soundly than Mr. Bailey." It is the purpose of 
the book to tell how varieties of cultivated plants come about, and 
how man may originate them. 

"I have read the work on ' Plant-Breeding,' by Professor L. H. Bailey, with 
keen interest, and find it just what I expected from such a source ; viz., a 
most satisfactory treatise on a subject of most pressing horticultural impor- 
tance. Professor Bailey combines a breadth of view with knowledge of detail, 
and produces written work most delightful to the scholar, and at the same 
time fit to command the respect and correct the practice of the craftsman. I 
honor Professor Bailey as a leader in the advancement of horticulture." 

E. J. WiCKSON, 

Agricultural Experiment Station, Berkeley, Cal. 



THE HORTICULTURIST'S RULE -BOOK: 

A compendium of useful information for fruit-grow- 
ers, truek-gardeners, florists, and others. Fourth edition. 
312 pages. 75 ets. 

This is the standard work of reference for horticulturists, and is 
now so well known that a detailed description is no longer neces- 
sary. The fact that the index contains 2,000 entries shows the 
great range of its contents. It is heaping full of information up- 
on such matters as recipes for insecticides and fungicides, descrip- 
tions (with remedies) of insects and diseases, weeds, lawns, graft- 
ing-waxes, seed and planting-tables, tables of yields, rules for 
greenhouse heating and management, with figures, methods of 
storing produce, tariff and postal rates, rules of societies for nam 
ing and exhibiting specimens, score-cards and scales of points, 
analyses of fertilizing substances, lists of currant horticultural 
books and journals, with prices and publishers, etc. 



Edited by PROFESSOR L. H. Bailey. 

THE NURSERY - BOOK . a complete Guide to the 
• Multiplication of Plants. 

Third edition, thoroughly revised and extended. 365 pages, 152 

illustrations. $1.00 

This manual, which has been one of the most popular of recent 
horticultural books, was first published in 1891. In this third edi- 
tion, all the features of the first two editions have been preserved, 
and the work has been extended to include many new subjects, 
such as seed-testing, mutual influence of stock and cion, the ques- 
tion of the devitalizing effects of graftage, the management and 
fertilizing of nursery lands, the grading of trees, storing of trees, 
trimming trees in the nursery, the healing of wounds, dwarfing 
trees, root-grafted vs. budded trees, and a full glossary. Very 
many new and original illustrations have been added. The book 
compi'ises full practical directions for seed-sowing, the making of 
all kinds of layers, stools, cuttings, propagation by bulbs and 
tubers, and very complete accounts of all the leading kinds of 
budding, grafting and inarching. Aside from this, The Nursery 
List is an alphabetical catalogue of about 1,500 plants, — of fruit, 
kitchen-garden, ornamental and greenhouse species, — with direc- 
tions for their multiplication. The book is the most complete 
treatise of its kind in the language, and is the standard reference 
book of nurserymen. 

"This book sliovild be in the home of not only every horticulturist, but of 
pvery family, irrespective of occupation, who love flowers or ornamental plants, 
for it treats of the propagation of these as well as of iood-vlsmts."— Michigan 
Fruit- Grotver. 



THE FORCING-BOOK: a Manual of the Cultiva- 

tion of Vegetables in Glass 

Houses. 26G pages, 88 illustrations. $1.00 

A handbook of instructions upon the forcing of vegetables for 
market, which is the completest work of the kind yet published in 
this counti-y. It is based on careful experimentation at the Cor- 
nell University Station, and a long familiarity with the forcing 
business. It contains full estimates of the cost of heating forcing- 
houses and of the labor necessary to run them, with illustrated 
chapters on the construction of forcing-houses, and their manage- 
ment. Very complete directions are given for the watering, venti- 
lating, shading, and piping of houses ; for the control of insects 
and fungous diseases, the making of forcing-house soils, etc. 
Then follow detailed instructions as to how to force lettuce, cauli- 
tiower, radish, asparagus, rhubarb, pea, salad plants and mints, 
root-crops, pepino, cucumber, muskmelon, bean, pepper, egg-plant, 
and others. The final chapter is a collection of summaries of the 
leading points in the management of each croup, so arranged that 
the busy man can turn to any one of them instantly. The book 
should be had by every person who has a greenhouse. 



Tte (Sartlcn-QIraft Series, 

Edited by Professor L. H. Bailey. 



THE FORCING-BOOK-Contiliued. 

"The discussion of tlie various forms of liouses, with tlieir structural de 
tails, is very complete, aitliougli concise, and for tlie space it takes it gives 
more valuable information than can be found elsewhere in tlie same compass. 
All such practical questions as would be treated under the liead of soil, fertil- 
izers, irrigation, shading, pollination, etc., have received careful study, and the 
beginner can feel safe in following them to the letter." — Garden and Forest. 

"It would have saved us dollars and dollars if we could have had it a few 
years ago." C. J. Pennock, Keunett Square, Pa. 

Another volume is now on the press, — THE PRUNING- 
BOOK. 



Not included in either of the foregoing- series. 

THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE : a couee- 

t i n of 

Evolution Essays Suggested by the Study of Domestic 
Plants. Second edition. $2.00 

This is an illustrated volume of 515 pages by Professor Bailey, 
containing an inunense amount of fact, experiment and philosophy 
respecting the evolution of plants, and particularly of their modi- 
fication under cultivation. It is the most thorough discussion of 
the running-out of varieties, acclimatization, and the like. It is, 
in fact, the only book which can be called a philosophy of horti- 
culture. It comprises thirty essays, as follows: The Survival of 
the Unlike ; Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism; The Plant 
Individual in the Light of Evolution, or The Philosophy of Bud- 
Variation, and its Bearing upon Weismannism ; Experimental 
Evolution amongst Plants ; Van Mons and Knight, and the Pro- 
duction of Varieties ; Some Bearings of the Evolution-Teaching 
upon Plant-Cultivation ; Why Have our Enemies Increased ? •. 
Coxey's Army and the Russian Thistle, or a Sketch of the Philos- 
ophy of Weediness ; Recent Progress in American Horticulture; 
On the Supposed Correlations of Quality in Fruits; The Natural 
History of Synonyms; Reflective Impressions of the Nursery 
Business ; The Relation of Seed-Bearing to Cultivation ; Variation 
after Birth ; A Pomological Alliance ; Sketch of the Relationship 
between American and Eastern Asian Fruits ; Horticultural Geo- 
gi'aphy ; Some Emphatic Problems of Climate and Plants, Com- 
prising "Speculative Notes upon Phenology (the Physiological 
Constant, and the Climatal Modification of Phenological Phenom- 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE-Continued. 

ena)," and "Some Interrelations of Climatology and Horticul- 
ture "; Are American Fruits Best Adapted to American Conditions? ; 
Acclimatization: Does it Occur?; On the Longevity of Apple 
Trees ; Sex in Fruits ; Are Novelties Worth their Cost ? ; Why 
do Promising Varieties Fail?; Reflections upon the Longevity of 
Varieties, comprising "Do Varieties Run Out?" "Are the Varieties 
of Orchard Fruits Running Out ? " " Studies in the Longevity of 
the Varieties of Tomatoes"; Whence Came the Cultivated Straw- 
berry?; The Battle of the Plums; The Evolution of American 
Grapes ; The Progress of the Carnation, comprising "Types and 
Tendencies in the Carnation," "John Thorpe's Ideal Carnation," 
and "Border Carnations"; Evolution of the Petunia; The Amelio- 
ration of the Garden Tomato, comprising " The Origin of the 
Tomato from a Morphological Standpoint," "History of the Trophy 
Tomato," "The Probable Course of Evolution of the Tomato," and 
" Direction of Contemporaneous Improvement of the Tomato " ; 
Glossary. 

"Whatever Professor Bailey writes is interesting reading. He has the rare 
gift of an entertaining style, and what he writes people want to read. All his 
previous books have be«^n widely read, and this will prove no exception to the 
well-established rule. The secret of this popularity, if there be any secret about 
it, is that when he writes he has something new to say,— something liased 
upon experiences and observations. These are by no means all his own, for 
he has the ability to see with tlie eyes of other people, as well as with his 
own. He is thus able to bring into his pages a rich mass of new matter, which 
gives them aditional interest and vahie." Professor C. E. Bessey, 

University of Nebraska, in *^ Science." 

***A companion volume to "The Survival of the Unlike," 
beautifully illustrated, may be expected soon: 

THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS. 

We also beg to announce that Professor Bailey has con- 
sented to undertake the editorial oversight of an 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN HORTICULTURE, 

to be published in three large illustrated volumes, dated 1900. 
It is to contain signed articles by specialists, arranged alphabet- 
ically by subjects, on horticulture in its widest sense, including 
Fruit-Growing, Flower and Vegetable Gardening, Greenhouse 
Matters, Ornamental Gardening, the Botany of Cultivated Plants, 
Bibliographies, Biographies, etc. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK 



LbAg'20 



>^ 



LIBRARY OF, CONGRESS 





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